The Vieuxtemps Guarneri is a violin built by the renowned Italian instrument maker

Giuseppe Guarneri Bartolomeo Giuseppe "del Gesù" Guarneri (, , ; 21 August 1698 – 17 October 1744) was an Italian luthier from the Guarneri family of Cremona. He rivals Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737) with regard to the respect and reverence accorded his i ...

around 1741. One of the last built by Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri, this Guarneri del Gesù instrument gained its name after being owned by the Belgian 19th century violinist

Henri Vieuxtemps Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps (; 17 February 18206 June 1881) was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th c ...

. The instrument was later used by

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin (22 April 191612 March 1999), was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. ...

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman (; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the First ina ...

and

Pinchas Zukerman Pinchas Zukerman (; born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor. Life and career Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zukerman. He began his musica ...

. Past owners of the instrument have included Sir Isaac Wolfson and Ian Stoutzker. The violin has been meticulously maintained and is considered to be in great condition. Without cracks and having never required patching, it is an excellent example of various principles of

standing wave In physics, a standing wave, also known as a stationary wave, is a wave that oscillates in time but whose peak amplitude profile does not move in space. The peak amplitude of the wave oscillations at any point in space is constant with respect t ...

s in string instruments. Its initial craftsmanship and resulting sound, in addition to its well-documented provenance and careful maintenance, has led it to a steady increase in price over the years. It has often been viewed as an investment, leaving some to criticize the overall trend of musical instruments gathering dust in a museum rather than being played as intended. In 2012, J&A Beares Ltd sold the instrument, in collaboration with Paolo Alberghini and Julie Reed Yeboah, for an undisclosed sum to an unnamed client. The undisclosed sum was reported to exceed that of the earlier world record price for the "Lady Blunt" violin. The purchaser subsequently provided lifetime use of the instrument to American violinist

Anne Akiko Meyers Anne Akiko Meyers (born May 15, 1970, in San Diego) is an American violinist. She has been called “the Wonder Woman of commissioning” by The Strad. Her album ''Fandango'', was awarded two Latin GRAMMY Latin Grammy's for Best Classical Alb ...

for performance. In a December 3, 2013 article, ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' reported that the purchase price of the "Vieuxtemps" violin exceeded $16m (£10.5m).

References

{{reflist Giuseppe Guarneri violins 1741 works