VIOLIN COLLECTORS

Violin collecting has always had two sides: preservation… and hoarding.

Paganini famously owned a small museum’s worth of Italian treasures—Strads, Amatis, Guarneris. He loved one Guarneri so much that he gave it to the city of Genoa with one request: keep it safe from the “profaning touch” of future players.

And then there are the mega‑collectors who don’t even play.

A Birmingham pen‑maker millionaire, Gillott, reportedly stockpiled hundreds of instruments. After his death, one room of his factory alone held over **£40,000** worth of violins—plus cellos and basses elsewhere. A private vault of sound… sitting in silence.