Auction link: Antonio Stradivari | The Joachim-Ma Violin

The pre-auction estimate is 12 - 18 million USD. This market resolves YES if the final sale price listed on the Sotheby's website is >16 million USD.

Resolution details

• Example from a past auction: this painting by Gentilesch has a "price realised" of USD 982,800. This is the equivalent number I will use—whatever is displayed by the auction page.

• Note that the final listed sale price typically includes the buyer's premium (and potentially other fees).

• If the lot is not put up for bidding at the auction for any reason, this market resolves N/A (edit: sweepstakes market will be extended to see if it is put up at a later auction, and resolve NO if it is not auctioned by the end of May 2025). If it is bid on at the auction, but does not ultimately sell, it resolves NO.

Details

Ask any member of the public who the greatest violin maker was, and they will have a name ready at hand. Ask the same question of any violin afficionado, amateur or professional, and they will have the same reply: Antonio Stradivari. Such consensus is rare in any field, let alone the specialist and relatively obscure craft of lutherie. Connoisseurs might point to a few other violin makers like Amati or Guarneri who might, for argument’s sake, be rivals to the crown, but the remarkable fact is that they all came from the same northern Italian city of Cremona, and lived between three and four hundred years ago, as did Stradivari. No other musical instrument maker of any sort has become so embedded in the public consciousness or the cultural domain. (Lot essay)