Stradivarius violin sells for record $15.894 mil at auction to benefit quake victims
TOKYO —
A Japanese music foundation has sold a renowned Stradivarius violin for a record 9,808,000 pounds ($15.894 million) at a London auction to raise money for tsunami disaster relief.
The nonprofit Nippon Foundation said Tuesday the proceeds from selling the violin known as the “Lady Blunt” will go to relief projects in northern Japan.
The group’s music affiliate owned the violin made in 1721 and hardly used. The new owner was not identified.
Foundation spokesman Hideo Fukuda said the group plans to use the proceeds to support and promote traditional arts in the region.
The violin is one of 21 string instruments held by the foundation, which loans instruments free of charge to top class musicians around the world.
Compiled from news reports
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7 Comments
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1
papasmurfinjapan
What a nice gesture by the foundation.
1
gogogo
SMAP should take a page out of this book, this is how you donate, not by giving less than 5% of an overpriced album.
0
oyatoi
Now that the precedent has been set, when can we expect the Japanese Government to begin liquidating part of its trillion dollar US treasury bond holdings to help pay for relief operations?
0
presto345
I quote from another news source:
The news source also said: ""The donation will be put to immediate use on the ground in Japan.""I
It is not entirely sure though how the proceeds of the sale will be used. The article on JT says, they will go to relief projects in northern Japan, but also, to support and promote traditional arts in the region.
Scratches head.
0
Photoman333
Based on past reports of how little of the donations actually made it to the people who need it, the Foundation would need to deliver the money personally.
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Paolo Alberghini
The 20 minutes which I spent studying the “Lady Blunt” Stradivari in New York a couple of weeks before the sale were among the most memorable in my career as an instrument specialist. The violin is in such great perfect state of preservation that it becomes a time portal. It akes you back to 1721 much more than any other violin. It must have looked very similar when J.B. Vuillaume( 1798-1875) “The French Stradivari” first saw in the 19th Century. There are other Strads in great state of preservation, and some will definitely break record prizes in the future. They will keep going up as the demand for a product of which only 550 examples exist, and only a very small percentage is available on the market at any given time. Certainly, this one was special in its own way, but they are all special….
Paolo Alberghini Specialist in the Sale of Fine and Rare Violins, New York www.PAFV.net
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