The London sales of '' The Mendelssohn '' at £ 902,000 ( $ 1,776,940 ) in 1990 and '' The Kreutzer '' for £ 947,500 in 1998 constitute two top-selling Stradivari . A record price paid at a public auction for a Stradivari was $ 2,032,000 for the '' Lady Tennant '' at Christie 's in New York , April 2005 . On 16 May 2006 , Christie 's auctioned Stradivari 's 1707 '' Hammer '' for a new record of US$ 3,544,000 . On 2 April 2007 , Christie 's sold a Stradivari violin , the 1729 '' Solomon , Ex-Lambert '' , for more than $ 2.7 million to an anonymous bidder in the auction house 's fine musical instruments sale . Its price , US$ 2,728,000 including Christie 's commission , far outdid its estimated value : $ 1 million to $ 1.5 million . On 14 October 2010 , a 1697 Stradivari violin known as " The Molitor " was sold online by Tarisio Auctions for a world-record price of $ 3,600,000 to violinist Anne Akiko Meyers : at the time its price was the highest for any musical instrument sold at auction . On 21 June 2011 , the Lady Blunt Stradivarius , a 1721 violin , was auctioned by Tarisio to an anonymous bidder for almost £ 10 million , with all proceeds going to help the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami . This was over four times the previous auction record for a Stradivari violin . The Baron von der Leyen Strad was auctioned by Tarisio on 26 April 2012 , for $ 2.6 million
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
Antonio Stradivari