The most expensive piano ever auctioned in history is the Alma-Tadema Steinway. It was sold at Christie’s in London for an amount of $1.8M in 1998.

Photo Credit: Steinway

The premiere auction house, Christie’s described the Alma-Tadema piano as the ‘most artistic piano ever produced’.  Legendary piano maker, Steinway & Sons, built it. The Sterling and Francine Clark Institute in Massachusettes purchased it. It was originally priced back in 1880s for just a mere amount of $1,200.

People now at Steinway & Sons said that the price did not surprised them at all since, creating such a beautiful instrument is a work of art and it entails so much creativity and craftsmanship.

Steinway & Sons recently recreated this legendary piano as part of their Legendary Collection to celebrate the famous piano creations they had since the company’s inception. The piano makers took around 20 months to be able to reproduced the Alma-Tadema Art Case Steinway which was designed by one of the popular artists back in 19th century, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

The reproduced Alma Tadema Steinway Piano has a price tag of $675,000. It is an exact replica of the one made in 1887. However, the original one has too much history accompanying it, so it was valued more than half of the reproduction. Antiques are quite valuable, so don’t stop collecting.

It is a well known fact to Music lovers, that the Stradivarius Violins are the most acclaimed of their sort for the quality of their sound. The best ones are considered those made by Antonio Stradivari in his ‘Golden Age’ between 1698 and 1720.

You can expect the typical price of a Stradivarius to run into hundreds of thousands of dollars, though they are rarely sold. Recently however, on the 4th of April 2008, the Stradivarius used by Barbara Penny, who was the first woman to play in the strings section of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, sold for $1.2 Million.

The famous piece, which had been expected to sell for $1.5 Million Christie’s auction house, was purchased by a buyer who did not wish to be identified.

The highest publicized price paid for a Stradivarius was $ 3,544,000 in 2006. However, private sales are said to have exceeded this figure.

Till now, no one has found out exactly what it is that gives the Stradivarius violins their superior sound. Modern theories rely around the type of tree density that was prevailing around that period due to climatic conditions. Most Stradivarius violins have been identified, and their provenance is well known.

So for those of you who have the money, as well as the interest to get yourself a Stradivarius, if you’re lucky enough to persuade someone to sell it to you, your name will go down in History!