Stradivari’s violin auctioned off in US for $15.3 million

The violin by master Antonio Stradivari has been sold at an auction in New York for $15.3 million.

The instrument, called "da Vinci", was made in 1714. This period is called the golden one in the life of Stradivarius, Russia-based online newspaper Gazeta quotes experts as saying.

According to auction house Tarisio, the value of the violin was lower than the previous record price, when in 2011 an Italian-made bowed instrument was paid $15.9 million.

Jason Price, the representative of the Tarisio auction house, said that the violin belonged to the famous violin virtuoso Toshe Seidel for almost 40 years, who not only played the violin himself but also taught well-known theoretical physicist Albert Einstein the art of violin at Princeton.

The student and teacher even performed together in concerts. So, in 1933, they performed at a concert in New York, the collection from which was directed to support Jewish scientists who had fled Nazi Germany.

The last owner of the "da Vinci" was a Japanese collector who wished to remain anonymous. The name of the owner of the rarity also remained a secret.