Lady Blunt Stradivarius

The Lady Blunt Stradivarius violin is one that was made ​​in 1721 by the Italian master violin maker Antonio Stradivari in Cremona. It is named after the first known owner, Lady Anne Blunt, daughter of Ada Lovelace and granddaughter of Lord Byron.

The Lady Blunt is one of the best preserved Stradivarius violins in the world. It is, as corresponds to the Messiah Stradivarius from 1716, in a state of almost the original state. This can be explained by the fact that she was in possession of collectors and usually was little used.

The violin was sold in 1971 in a Sotheby's auction for a then- record high of £ 84,000 (approx. U.S. $ 200,000 ).

In 2008, she was the Nippon Music Foundation sold in a private transaction for over 10 million U.S. dollars. The Lady Blunt was sold by Tarisio Auctions in an online auction on 20 June 2011 for £ 9.8 million (about 15.9 million U.S. dollars). Until that time, the auction price of the Molitor Stradivarius was the record of a Stradivarius, this was in 2010 sold for 3.6 million U.S. dollars. This record surpassed the Lady Blunt fourfold. The proceeds from the auction of the Lady Blunt went to the Foundation by the Nippon Foundation concerning the reconstruction after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. At the sale, the Lady Blunt Stradivarius as " the best preserved Stradivarius, which is offered in the last century for sale " has been described.