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 ...

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 ce ...

. The instrument was later used by

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to t ...

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman ( he, יצחק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist widely considered one of the greatest violinists in the world. Perlman has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that hav ...

and

Pinchas Zukerman Pinchas Zukerman ( he, פנחס צוקרמן, 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 Zuk ...

. 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 never having required patching, rendering it 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 ...

s in string instruments. The initial craftsmanship and its resulting sound as well as the 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) is an American concert violinist. Meyers was the top-selling classical instrumentalist of 2014 on Billboard's traditional classical charts. Early life and education The daughter of an artist and a college ...

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

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econ ...

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

References

{{reflist Giuseppe Guarneri violins 1741 works