LONDON (Reuters) - A Russian businessman paid a record price on Wednesday for an 18th century violin that had not been played in public for more than 70 years.
Maxim Viktorov, who bought the instrument by master violinmaker Guiseppe Guarneri, paid "well in excess" of the previousworld auction record for a musical instrument of $3.54 million(1.80 million pounds), auction house Sotheby's said.
It said Viktorov bought the violin privately, and did notdisclose the price.
Viktorov promised that the instrument, dating from 1741 andat one stage owned for 15 years by Belgian composer HenriVieuxtemps, would now be played regularly in public.
Violinist Chloe Hanslip gave reporters a briefdemonstration of its qualities by playing Paganini's 24thCaprice after the sale was concluded.
"Its first concert appearance in Moscow will be on March22, in the Grand Hall of Moscow State Conservatory," Viktorovsaid in a statement.
"The great virtuoso Pinchas Zukerman will perform concertosof J.S. Bach, M. Bruch and W.A. Mozart. I hope it will be asinspirational to the artists who play it as it was to its firstowner, Vieuxtemps, who composed real masterpieces on it," hesaid.
Instruments by Guarneri, also known as del Gesu, areconsidered to be on a par with those of the more famous AntonioStradivari, a contemporary.
The $3.54 million auction record for a musical instrumentwas paid at Christie's in New York in May 2006 for Stradivari's1708 "Hammer" violin.
The auction record for a Guarneri violin is 572,000 poundspaid for the 1743 "Baron Heath" at Sotheby's in London in 1988.
(Reporting by Jeremy Lovell; editing by Tim Pearce)
