🔗 Share this article The famous scientist's Violin Fetches Nearly £1 Million during an Auction The total price will surpass £1 million once commission are included An violin once belonging to the famous scientist has been sold £860,000 in a bidding event. This 1894 Zunterer violin is thought as being Einstein's first instrument and was initially projected to fetch about £300,000 when it went under the hammer in the Gloucestershire area. A philosophical text that Einstein gave to a friend also sold for £2,200. The sale amounts will be subject to a further 26.4% commission added to them, which means the overall amount for Einstein's violin will rise above £1 million. Auctioneers believe that after the additional charges are added, this auction could be the highest ever for a violin not once played by a performing artist or created by the Stradivarius workshop – with the earlier record belonging to an instrument which was likely played aboard the Titanic. Albert Einstein was an avid musician who started playing at age six and continued all his life. A bike saddle also owned by the physicist remained unsold at the auction and may be offered once more. The pieces up for auction were given to his colleague and physicist von Laue in the latter part of 1932. Soon after, the scientist fled to the US to flee the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment and the Nazi regime in Germany. Von Laue gave them to a contact and admirer of Einstein, Hommrich two decades later, and it was her descendant who had offered them for auction. One more instrument once owned by the scientist, which was gifted to Einstein as he came in America during 1933, was sold at auction for $516,500 (£370,000) in New York during 2018.