Violin as Investment
Six year on (She’s completed a postgraduate degree at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama), during which time she has performed as a soloist with a range of international orchestras across Europe, the Middle East and US, Pike plays a violin made in 1708 by Matteo Goffriller, the first important Venetian luthier, as violin-makers are properly known.
Goffriller may not be quite as celebrated as the Cremona-based Antonio Stradivari, and violins bearing his name may not have quite the pecuniary value – in 2006, a Stradivarius (“The Hammer”) sold at Christie’s, New York, for $3.54m – but stringed instruments authentically inscribed “Mattheus Goffriller fece in Venezia anno…” still command remarkable prices. A Goffriller the year before went for $620,800.
If these prices seem high, then it is worth noting that the sums realised by instruments sold privately can be steeper still. According to Stradivari Invest, a Danish organisation that strives to “facilitate investments in rare stringed instruments”, a Stradivarius, “La Pucelle”, as well as three Guarneri del Gesù violins, have recently fetched $6m apiece. (Rarer even than “Strads”, there are “only around 135 violins and one cello built by del Gesù”, says its founder, Staffan Borseman.) While a Goffriller cello can command $1.m. As one dealer told me, “Unlike the art market, you don’t tend to get the prime examples at auction, and you may risk getting a problematic instrument. It’s usually much safer to buy through a reputable dealer because it’s such a very small world, and dealers don’t want to risk their reputations.”
