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Paganini Violin Bought for Russian Collection
A violin made in 1720 by Cremona master Carlo Bergonzi (1683-1747) and owned by Niccolo Paganini was purchased at a Sotheby’s auction for £568 ($1,005,360) by Russian citizen Maxim Viktorov for the Violin Art Foundation. Bergonzi, although not considered one of the great masters of violinmaking, was one of the few students of Stradivarius. There are about 50 of his works known today, of which three, a violin and two violas, are in the Russian State Museum Exhibits Center, where they are available for use by musicians. The new acquisition by Viktorov is attested as belonging to Paganini by an acquaintance of the violinist, although Sotheby’s was able to trace is provenance only to 1870. The record price paid for a violin was set at a Christie’s auction in April of this year, when a Stradivarius sold for $2 million.
Viktorov is a lawyer by profession. He founded the Violin Art Foundation in 2002. The fund owns 15 unique instruments. Its activities include various forms of support for artists, restoration and study of instruments, publication of scholarly works on the subject and, since 2003, it has sponsored the Niccolo Paganini International Violinists’ Competition. In 2004, a grand prize was added to the competition. That prize is the right to play one of the instruments from the collection for one year. The 2004 grand prize winner in the Paganini Competition was Alena Baeva.
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All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 03, 2005
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