🔗 Share this article Albert Einstein's Violin Fetches £860,000 at Auction The final amount will exceed one million pounds after charges are added The string instrument formerly in the possession of the renowned physicist has been sold £860,000 at auction. The 1894 model Zunterer is believed as being the scientist's initial violin while being initially estimated to fetch around £300k during its under the hammer in South Cerney, Gloucestershire. One philosophy book that Einstein gave to a colleague also sold for £2,200. All final bids will have a further 26.4% commission added to them, meaning the overall amount for Einstein's violin will be one million pounds. Auctioneers estimate that after the commission are included, this auction could be the record for a violin not formerly belonging by a professional musician or made by Stradivarius – with the earlier record belonging to a violin which was likely played aboard the Titanic. The famous scientist was an avid musician who commenced beginning his musical journey at six and continued for his entire lifetime. A bicycle seat also belonging by the physicist failed to sell at the auction and may be re-listed. Each of the items up for auction had been given to his colleague and scientist von Laue in late 1932. Soon after, Einstein fled to the United States to escape the growth of prejudice and the Nazi regime in Germany. The physicist passed them on to a friend and Einstein fan, Margarete Hommrich 20 years later, and the person who her descendant that has offered them for auction. Another violin formerly possessed by the physicist, which was gifted to Einstein when he arrived in the United States in the year 1933, fetched at auction for $516.5k (£370,000) in NYC during 2018.