Japanese-owned Stradivarius violin sells for $15 million at auction

""The highest auction price for a violin is another Stradivarius that sold in 2011 for around $16 million at a London auction, according to Tarisio.

The instrument was listed by Nippon Music Foundation to raise funds for victims of massive quake and tsunami disasters which devastated Japan's northeastern region that year.""

What a Nobel cause, glad to hear that, thank you.

Wow, I didn't know the background to this story.

Thanks for sharing, Mark.

From all the things that rich people can spend a lot of money supporting musicians or giving it to the victims of the Tohoku disaster seems an extremely positive way to do it.

Don't drop it!

"What a Nobel cause..."

What is a 'Nobel [sic] cause'?

The $15 million tied up in a Stradivarius violin has its analogue in all the money sitting in offshore holdings that could and should be used for the improvement of Japanese peoples’ lives but instead helps bankroll the lives of people elsewhere. The plebeians back home continue to get shafted; crowded cities with very few places to sit down, mandatory service overtime, a stultified and sclerotic economy replete with dead end part time and contract positions, high inflation and an eroded yen that cheaper imports would mitigate if only they weren’t intentionally blocked. Elsewhere, improved services and amenities are bought and paid for with Japan’s bloated offshore holdings; while back home there’s only crumbs for the peons, groaning under the 不足風習 ethos of noble suffering, their gormless leaders doing their level best to channel Colonel Saito’s ‘be happy in your work’.

I would love to play it! Or any of them. I guess it is just a dream. I did play a $3m piano once for 5mins. Never forget.

The $15 million tied up in a Stradivarius violin has its analogue in all the money sitting in offshore holdings that could and should be used for the improvement of Japanese peoples’ lives but instead helps bankroll the lives of people elsewhere.

Let me guess, you donate all your savings to the poor and live like a hermit as well.

Why is it that folks crawl out of the walls and complain about someone who makes some cash? Gotta be jealous.

Let me guess, you donate all your savings to the poor and live like a hermit as well.

No. But then neither do I flaunt it in their faces or suggest, a la Marie Antoinette, that they suck it up.