Sotheby’s lately sold a Guarneri violin once a lavish possession by the musician Henri Vieuxtemps to a Russian entrepreneur for the maximum auction price ever paid for any musical instrument. Word is around that Maxim Viktorov paid an unrevealed sum, “well in excess” of pre-recorded last auction of the device. The preceding record was inked by a 1708 Stradivarius identified as the Hammer that got sold for $3.54 million at New-York based Christie’s in May 2006.

Whilst the record for a Guarneri was set up during an auction in 1988, when a 1743 specimen from Cremona generated $1,126,088 at Sotheby’s in London. This proud owner of the Guarneri would be adding it to his existing collection of 15 violins. The violin has not been played in public for almost 70 years, but Viktorov assured that the instrument would now be played frequently in public.