Violin used to play Over the Rainbow in Wizard of Oz expected to sell for more than $20m
A Stradivarius violin “of outstanding power and beauty” used to play Over the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz is expected to break records when it is put up for auction next week.
The 308-year-old violin, previously owned by Toscha Seidel, one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, was created during Antonio Stradivari’s celebrated “golden period” and is expected to sell for more than $20m (£16m) when it goes under the hammer at specialist auction house Tarisio on 9 June, making it the most valuable violin ever sold at auction.
The violin, called “da Vinci, ex-Seidel”, is expected to achieve the huge price because of its unique provenance. As well as being one of Stradivarius’ best – and still playable – violins, it was used by Seidel to record the scores to several early Hollywood movies including Intermezzo, in which a famed violinist, played by Leslie Howard, falls in love with his accompanist (Ingrid Bergman), Melody for Three and the 1939 musical classic The Wizard of Oz.
As well as using the violin to perform solos and with orchestras in some of the world’s most famous concert halls, Seidel also taught others to play.
One of his pupils was Albert Einstein, who in return for the lessons gave Seidel a sketch depicting the phenomenon of length contraction from his theory of relativity. The pair went on to perform a Bach double concerto at a fundraiser to benefit German Jewish scientists imperilled by the Nazis.
When Seidel bought the violin for $25,000 in 1924, it made front page news in the New York Times. At the time Seidel, an immigrant from Odessa, now in Ukraine, said he wouldn’t trade the violin “for a million dollars” as it was his most treasured possession. “The tone is of outstanding power and beauty,” he
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