300-year-old Stradivarius violin up for auction, may sell for $18M

A rare piece of musical history dating back to 1714 is going on the auction block this week.

A violin made by Antonio Stradivari could bring in millions of dollars, UPI reported. The auction takes place at Sotheby’s in New York on Friday.

The 311-year-old instrument has a name, the “Joachim-Ma,” and has a price guide of $12 million to $18 million, The Washington Post reported.

Even if it doesn’t hit the maximum expected bid, it may still break records if it goes over $15,875,800 which was the amount paid for the violin named “Lady Blunt.” The Stradivarius was sold in London in 2011 and is the current record holder for the most expensive instrument sold at auction, according to Guinness World Records. The “Lady Blunt” was crafted in 1721, The Associated Press reported.

Sotheby’s said the “Joachim-Ma” was crafted during Stradivari’s “Golden Period” when he was at the “very pinnacle of his creativity,” the Post reported.

It was named after two of its previous owners – Joseph Joachim and Si-Hon Ma, according to Sotheby’s. Joachim was a collaborator of Johannes Brams and probably played the violin during the debut of Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 as the composer conducted.

Joachim traded the violin in 1885 and was owned by several people before turning up in Massachusetts in 1923. Eventually, Ma bought it in 1967 and used it in performances until his death in 2009. His estate gifted it to the New England Conservatory in 2016, the Post reported. Ma attended the conservatory, earning a master’s degree in 1950 the AP reported.

Florian Leonhard, an expert in Stradivariuses, who has stored “a few hundred” violins, said the instruments are a living fossil and each one is unique with only 650 still around.

The proceeds from the violin’s sale will go to scholarships at the New England Conservatory of Music, Sotheby’s said.