# The Violin Nobody Played > The Ashmolean says the Messiah Stradivari owes its fame not to the sounds it makes but to its condition. Three centuries of owners chose not to use it, and that choice is why its authenticity could be doubted for a hundred years. > The Study - 2026-08-30 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/the-violin-nobody-played/ ## Key points - The Ashmolean's own label for the Messiah states that the violin owes its fame not to the sounds that it makes but to the condition in which it survives, and attributes that condition to the fact that it has always been a collector's piece. - In the Lady Blunt's documented chain of owners across two centuries, exactly one was primarily a performer: the Australian-born violinist Johann Kruse, who held it from 1901 to 1913. Every other owner was a collector, a dealer or a foundation. - The two best-preserved Stradivari violins are the two that were least used, and the market pays for that. The Lady Blunt sold through Tarisio on 20 June 2011 for GBP 9,808,000 including premium, which the house reported as over four times the previous auction record for a Stradivari. - Preservation created the doubt. Because the Messiah was almost never seen or played, and because Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume both restored Stradivari violins and made exact copies of them, a suspicion that he had substituted or heavily altered it remained credible for about a century. - The sources disagree on the detail even here. Tarisio's own 2011 press release gives the 1971 Sotheby's price for the Lady Blunt as GBP 84,000; the Cozio Archive chain used in this archive's record gives GBP 84,500. Neither figure has been reconciled to a saleroom document in this piece. ## An instrument's condition is a record of who owned it ## The Ashmolean says the fame is the condition, not the sound ## The dates in the two accounts do not line up, and that is worth recording ## One performer appears in the Lady Blunt's chain in two hundred years ## The market pays for the disuse, and the prices show it ## Keeping it unplayed is what made the doubt possible ## What a collector's instrument is evidence of ## Why this archive is free to read The market's highest praise for an old instrument is that it looks as though it has never been used, and on the two violins in this archive that meet that description the praise is literally accurate. What that phrasing hides is a trade. Three centuries of owners who chose the cabinet over the concert hall gave us the best surviving evidence of what Stradivari's workmanship actually looked like, and took away almost everything else: the wear patterns, the players' accounts, the repair history, the ordinary paper trail of an object in use. The Messiah is the clearest case, because the same silence that preserved it is what allowed a serious forgery question to stand for a hundred years. A collector's instrument is a superb witness to one question and no witness at all to the rest, and a chain of ownership will tell you which of the two you are holding before any expert does. ## Questions **Why is the Messiah Stradivarius famous?** For its condition rather than its sound. The Ashmolean Museum's own account says the violin owes its fame not to the sounds that it makes but to the astonishing condition in which it survives, and attributes that condition to its always having been a collector's piece. **Is the Messiah Stradivarius played?** No. It is held by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford as accession number WA1940.112, presented by Alfred and Arthur Hill in 1939, and is displayed rather than used. Its previous owners had also kept it largely unplayed, in cases and cabinets. **How much did the Lady Blunt Stradivarius sell for?** GBP 9,808,000 including buyer's premium, on a hammer price of GBP 8,750,000, at a Tarisio online auction on 20 June 2011. Tarisio reported the total as USD 15,894,000 and as over four times the previous auction record for a Stradivari violin. **Why did the Nippon Music Foundation sell the Lady Blunt?** To raise money after the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011. Tarisio's press release states that 100 per cent of the proceeds would go to the Nippon Foundation's Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. **Does a violin's condition prove it is authentic?** No, and in the Messiah's case exceptional condition is part of what kept the question open. Because the violin was almost never seen or played and had passed through Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, who both restored and copied Stradivari violins, the ordinary evidence of use that an authenticator relies on was absent. ## Sources - [1] Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, 'Messiah Violin, by Stradivari', object page for WA1940.112, giving the 1716 date, maple and spruce, length 59.3 cm, the 1939 gift by Alfred and Arthur Hill, the nineteenth-century neck lengthening and fittings, and the museum's statement that the violin owes its fame to its condition rather than its sound. - [2] Tarisio, press release, 'The Lady Blunt Stradivarius Violin Sets World Record Price at Tarisio Auction', 21 June 2011, giving the 20 June 2011 sale at GBP 9,808,000 / USD 15,894,000, the pledge of 100 per cent of proceeds to the Nippon Foundation's Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund, the 1971 Sotheby's figure of GBP 84,000, and the quoted remark of Andrew Hill. - [3] Tarisio, 'Lady Blunt Stradivarius of 1721', notable sales record, for the auction result and the instrument's condition and ownership summary. - [4] Tarisio Cozio Archive, Carteggio entry, 'The 1721 Lady Blunt Stradivari violin, sold by Tarisio', the reconstructed ownership chain used for the sequence of collectors, dealers and the single performer owner.