11 hours to go and Lady Blunt is some way short of target
mainThe auction ends tonight and the highest online bid so far for the Lady Blunt Stradivarius is stuck on £6million ($9.6m).
The last time it sold, in 2008, was to the Nippon Music Foundation for $10 million. Now the Foundation is selling it to raise funds for Japan earthquake relief. A price well in excess of $10 million has been anticipated.
The Lady Blunt is one of the two most perfectly preserved Strads in existence (the other is the ‘Messiah’ at the Ashmolean in Oxford). It has not been played in half a century and cannot ever be brought back to the stage. But as an exemplar of the craftsman’s original work it is almost unmatched. Eleven hours to go. Keep bidding. Watch here for the outcome.
I went to see it today (see my blog) and very nice it was too. In similar condition to the Royal Academy of Music’s Viotti Strad but obviously nothing like the Messiah in Oxford. There’s tons of info on the Tarisio site which is well worth a look. Let’s hope it raises lots for Japan.
Why can’t it be played?
The “Messiah” was given to the museum with the proviso that it never be played again. Not sure how I feel about that personally, but …
It can, but after so many years of idleness it is unlikely to sound very good.
And it’s sold for £8.75 million.