|                                                    News                                                   Einstein's violin exceeds estimate and fetches £860k at auction                                                  A violin that belonged to Albert Einstein has sold at auction for £860,000, exceeding its initial estimate of between £200,000–£300,000.                                                   The 1894 Anton Zunterer violin went under the hammer on 8 October 2025, with the sale completing in approximately ten minutes. The instrument will have an extra 26.4 per cent commission added on top of the price, meaning the final price will be over £1 million.                                                   The instrument is believed to have been the first instrument that Einstein ever bought, before he went to study and work Switzerland in 1895 at the age of 16. He continued to play the violin regularly, during the period of his life where he was developing his theory of special relativity and general theory of relativity.                                                   Fleeing antisemitism and the rising tide of Nazism in Germany, Einstein left for the US in 1932 and gifted the violin to his friend, Max von Laue, along with a philosophy book and a bicycle saddle. These items also joined the violin on auction, with the book selling for £2,200, while the bicycle saddle, estimated at £20,000 - £30,000, remained unsold.                                                   Von Laue later gifted the items to Margarete Hommrich, whose great-great granddaughter put them up for sale.                                                   https://www.thestrad.com/news/...                                                  |