🔗 Share this article Einstein's Violin Sells for £860k in a Auction The total price will be over £1 million after charges are included A violin once owned by the famous scientist has gone for £860,000 at auction. That 1894 model Zunterer is considered as being his earliest instrument and had been initially expected to achieve approximately £300k when it went up for auction in the Gloucestershire area. One philosophy book that the physicist gave to a friend was also sold for £2.2k. All final bids will be subject to an extra 26.4% commission added on top, meaning the overall amount for Einstein's violin will be £1m. Auctioneers think that the additional charges are applied, this auction could be the record for a string instrument not previously owned by a concert violinist or created by the Stradivarius workshop – as the prior highest sale being held by an instrument that was possibly performed during the Titanic voyage. The renowned physicist was a keen player who started playing when he was six and continued throughout his life. Another bike saddle also owned by the scientist failed to sell at the auction and could be re-listed. All items offered for sale had been given to his colleague and physicist the physicist Max von Laue in late 1932. Not long after, the scientist fled to America to avoid the growth of antisemitism and the Nazi regime in the country. Von Laue gifted them to a friend and follower of the scientist, Margarete Hommrich 20 years later, and the seller was her great-great granddaughter who recently offered them for auction. Another violin once owned by the scientist, that was presented to Einstein upon his arrival in the US in 1933, fetched in a sale for $516,500 (£370k) in New York during 2018.