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Rare Stradivari viola expected to fetch $45M at auction

A music lover with at least $45 million to fiddle around with can get their hands on the world’s most expensive instrument.

Sotheby’s is hawking an incredibly rare viola, crafted in 1719 by the legendary Antonio Stradivari, and taking sealed bids until June 25. Only 10 Stradivari violas have survived all these years, and this one is expected to fetch a winning bid of at least $45 million — which would set a record for any single musical instrument, according to the New York auction house. It’s the first such viola to be on the open market in about 50 years.

The instrument is called “the Macdonald,” named after the 3rd Baron Macdonald, Godfrey Bosville, who owned it in the early 19th century.

“The Macdonald viola happens to be the greatest viola in existence,” said famed violist David Aaron Carpenter, who played it in a promotional video for Sotheby’s. “It it one of 10 violas made by Stradivari, and the other nine are, unfortunately, in foundations or museums and realistically can never be made available for sale.”

This rare piece was owned by the late Peter Schidlof of the Amadeus Quartet. Schidlof, who died in 1987, purchased it in 1964 and his estate is now selling the prized instrument.

“So it is not only a unique piece of history, but it actually is the best preserved and probably the most beautiful of them all,” Carpenter said.

Sotheby’s expects this piece to far exceed the previous record sale of a musical instrument, the $15.9 million shelled out in 2011 for the “Lady Blunt” Stradivari violin.