Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri 'del Gesù', Cremona, 1735, the 'Ladenburg, Odnoposoff'
Violin: 40121
Labeled, "Joseph Guarnerius fecit / Cremona anno 1735."
Back: One-piece
Length of back: 35.1 cm
Upper bouts: 16.5 cm
Middle bouts: 11.15 cm
Lower bouts: 20.25 cm
Notes:
"The instrument's owner, Dietmar Machold of Machold Rare Violins, agreed to let Mr. McDuffie keep playing the Ladenburg (named for the German banking family that owned it in the mid-19th century) while he looked for a way to pay for it. That long and arduous quest, full of false starts and harsh doses of reality, came to a successful conclusion yesterday in the office of the Wall Street law firm Seward & Kissel. There, a group of 16 investors calling itself 1735 del Gesù Partners L.P., officially purchased the Ladenburg from Mr. Machold for the express purpose of leasing it to Mr. McDuffie.There are 16 partners in all, including Mr. McDuffie and Mr. Machold; the shares cost $100,000 each. Mr. McDuffie does not pay rent; his obligation is to play the violin, so it will maintain its value, and to pay for its maintenance and insurance, which he estimates at $15,000 to $20,000 a year. At the end of the 25-year lease (actually 23; it is retroactive to 1998), Mr. McDuffie is to return the instrument to the partnership, which intends to sell it, presumably at a profit.
The violin was appraised in 1999 for $3.5 million by the violin consultant in Christie's musical instrument department. It has already more than doubled in value since Mr. Machold purchased it from a collector in Europe under a confidential arrangement for $1.2 million in 1989."
Investment Opportunity. Strings Attached.; Musician and 15 Partners Join Forces to Acquire a Multimillion-Dollar Violin, Susan Elliott, The New York Times, New York
"Interestingly there is a violin with irrefutable, documented Nazi ties that Gaines and Reich neglected to report on, despite their apparent awareness of the instrument and its provenance: The Ladenburg del Gesu violin, sold by the firm of Machold in 1998, to patron Herbert Axelrod for a reported $4,000,000.00. More recently a group of investors including violinist Robert Macduffie purchased the Ladenberg from the New York violin dealer, Machold for the concert use of Mr. MacDuffie in a transaction that was widely reported on in the press. The Ladenberg del Jesu has a checkered past which is recounted by the Swiss dealer Henry Werro in a letter printed in the Machold monograph on the violin.
Werro writes to a one time owner of the Ladenburg, Ricardo Odnoposoff with details of the provenance of the violin and it’s having been the sold to the "Goëbbels Stiftung" in 1942/43. Werro further mentions that although the violin was offered for sale to him shortly after the war. Werro passed on the prospective purchase, "as I had my doubts for political reasons, which in the meantime seem to have vanished and to be lapsed." Why this verifiable case of a Nazi violin failed to make it into Reich and Gaines article about Nazi violins is a mystery."
Soundpost Online | Where players, makers and connoisseurs of the violin meet to exchange news, views and information, Stefan Hersh
Provenance
| from 1820 | Ladenburg |
| until 1878 | Ernst Ladenburg |
| from 1878 | Eugen Stettheimer |
| from 1931 | Unknown |
| until 1939 | Hamma & Co. |
| 1939-1942 | Henry Werro |
| from 1942 | Hamma & Co. |
| Göbbels Stiftung | |
| until 1949 | Walter Stross |
| 1949-1956 | Schoppe |
| 1956-1957 | N. Ostenrieder |
| 1957-1958 | Dr. Bernhard Sprengel |
| from 1958 | Emil Herrmann, New York |
| Ricardo Odnoposoff | |
| from 1975 | Anonymous |
| 1992-1998 | Dietmar Machold |
| 1998-2001 | Dr Herbert R. Axelrod |
| from 2001 | Current owner |
Known players
Nicolò Paganini, Ricardo Odnoposoff, Robert McDuffie, Walter Stross
Certificates & Documents
Certificate: Machold Rare Violins, Ltd, Vienna (1998)- Certificate: Machold Rare Violins, Ltd, Vienna (1994)
Letter: Henry Werro, Bern (1959) To Ricardo Odnoposoff. States that Hamma sold the instrument to 'Göbbels Stiftung' around 1942/3.- Letter: Hamma & Co., Stuttgart (1959) To Ricardo Odnoposoff.
- Certificate: Emil Herrmann, New York, New York, NY (1958)
- Letter: Hamma & Co., Stuttgart (1957) To Dr. Sprengel.
- Certificate: Hamma & Co., Stuttgart (1957)
- Certificate: Eugen Tenucci, Zurich (1952)
- Letter: W. E. Hill & Sons, London (1949)
Cozio holds copies of many certificates and other documents, some of which are available to view on request. Please contact us if you wish to view a particular document. (Note that we do not always have permission to share documents.)
References
Evelyn & Herbert Axelrod Stringed Instrument Collection, Herbert Axelrod (illustrated)- The New York Times, Susan Elliott, New York
- Italian Violin Makers (2001), Teruhiko Sato, Nippon Gengakki, Tokyo (illustrated)
- Italienische Geigenbauer (1957), Karel Jalovec, Artia, Prague, 1957 (illustrated)
- Ars Musica, Aloys Greither, Bayer AG, Heft 10 (illustrated)
- Joseph Guarnerius del Gesù, Cremona 1735, Ex-"Ladenburg", Machold Rare Violins (illustrated)
- Meister Italienischer Geigenbaukunst (8th Edition), Hamma & Co., Florian Noetzel Verlag, Wilhelmshaven (illustrated)
Soundpost Online | Where players, makers and connoisseurs of the violin meet to exchange news, views and information, Stefan Hersh- The Jacques Français Rare Violins, Inc. Photographic Archive and Business Records, 1844-1998, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (illustrated)