LONDON, March 4 (UPI) -- The Royal Academy of Music Friday announced a campaign to raise $2.1 million to keep in Britain a rare Stradivari violin.
A spokesman for the academy said $1.92 million already has been raised to buy the so-called Viotti Stradivari from its anonymous owner and the rest of the purchase price must be raised by March 31. The owner has agreed to accept $4.02 million for the instrument in an estate tax deal with British tax authorities. The violin is valued at $6.2 million.
The violin is named for Giovanni Battista Viotti (1753-1824), the leading violinist of his era who played the 17th century instrument made by Antonio Stradivari of Cremona, Italy, in concerts throughout Europe. Stradivari violins are treasured for the beauty of their powerful and penetrating tone ascribed to their proportions and varnish.
TheRoyal Academy already owns 15 of the 550 existing Stradivari instruments but considers the Viotti extraordinary because of its unbelievably fresh state of preservation due to lack of use for nearly 200 years.
