sarahness

Kyoko Yonemoto, a Japanese violinist, serenaded Russian high society with one of the most expensive violins ever sold at auction.

Yonemoto, 26, played a 1741 Guarneri del Gesu which reportedly fetched at $3.9 million to celebrate the 227th anniversary of the birth of Italian violin wizard Nicolo Paganini.


Click here to watch the performance.


“I will probably only have one such chance to play such a violin,” said Yonemoto.


“To me, the violin is like some old man who passes history on to me,” she added, having put together a program that very much reflected the violin’s illustrious past,” she added.


The violin she played was once known as the “Vieuxtemps” Guarneri del Gesu when the composer owned it.


Referring to Guarneri’s violins, Viktorov said they were “priceless” — even though he managed to buy one.


“During the last period of the great master’s work, he reached the pinnacle of perfection,” he said of Guarneri, who died in 1744, three years after Viktorov’s violin was made.


Though it would not disclose the price, London-based Sotheby’s said it was the most expensive instrument ever sold at an auction worldwide.


Russia’s super-rich have spent vast fortunes to bring native art and the best of the rest of the world to the mother country for ownership or display.


Guarneri is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati and Stradivari families.[wikipedia]