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Record sale price for rare cello
Lloyd Webber recorded
"The Look of Love" on the
Guadagnini cello
A rare 18th-Century cello, by Italian cello maker Giovanni Battista Guadagnini,
has sold for a record price of £341,250 at Christie's in London. Dutch cellist
Pieter Wispelwey bought the instrument at Christie's Musical Instruments sale.
Guadagnini used new technology to produce a smaller than average cello.
Made in the northern Italian city of Parma in 1760, it is one of only five
Guadagnini cellos which have come to auction in the last 20 years. Giovanni
Battista Guadagnini became an acclaimed cello-maker in the 18th Century, quickly
surpassing the lesser creations of his father Lorenzo.
In the spring of 1758, Guadagnini moved from Milan to the duchy of Parma where
he is believed to have crafted this cello. It was offered to Christie's for
auction from the collection of a musician whose family acquired the cello in the
1940s.
Peter Wispelwey
The auction price establishes a new world record for a Guadagnini cello.
Christie's holds the world auction record for any musical instrument for the
sale of the Kreutzer violin by Antonio Stradivari, which sold for £947,500 in
April 1998 in London.
Story from BBC NEWS
Published: 2004
© BBC MMIV |
