Messiah Stradivarius
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The Messiah-Salabue Stradivarius of 1716 is a violin made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari of Cremona.
The Messiah, sobriquet Le Messie, remained in the Stradivarius workshop until his death in 1737.
It was then sold by his son Paolo to Count Cozio di Salabue in 1775, and for a time, the violin bore
the name Salabue.
The instrument was then purchased by Luigi Tarisio in 1827, and later by French luthier Jean Baptiste Vuillaume
of Paris purchased the Messiah along with Tarisio's entire collection upon Tarisio’s death in 1854. Vuillaume's son-
in-law named it Le Messie because, he said,
"[this] violin is like the Messiah of the Jews,
because one always waits for him but he never appears."
The Messiah eventually was bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.
As a condition in the will of the former owner, the Museum can never allow the violin to be played.
Today, the violin remains unplayed and is almost in its original state as when it was made in 1716.
Because of this, it one of the most valuable of all the Stradivari instruments.