Violin by Andrea Amati, Cremona c.1575.
Andrea Amati is the father of Cremonese violin making with fewer than two dozen known examples of his work extant, but the presence of most of his surviving works on public display in museum collections gives the impression of a much larger body of surviving work. When an example of his work came for sale we were able to provide third-party advice and expertise to support the cultural significance and rarity of the instrument and lead to its successful acquisition. Once it has undergone an extensive restoration it will be come one of the focal treasures of an emerging American museum of music.
Connoissership at Oxford University.
For the academic world there are deep problems that arise from historic artefacts that are untethered from a record of provenance, and the violin is
