The 1894 violin, played by the German scientist while he developed his theories of relativity, tripled its estimate of between £200,000- £300,000
A violin that belonged to Albert Einstein has sold at auction for £860,000, exceeding its initial estimate of between £200,000–£300,000.
The 1894 Anton Zunterer violin went under the hammer on 8 October 2025, with the sale completing in approximately ten minutes. The instrument will have an extra 26.4 per cent commission added on top of the price, meaning the final price will be over £1 million.
The instrument is believed to have been the first instrument that Einstein ever bought, before he went to study and work Switzerland in 1895 at the age of 16. He continued to play the violin regularly, during the period of his life where he was developing his theory of special relativity and general theory of relativity.
Fleeing antisemitism and the rising tide of Nazism in Germany, Einstein left for the US in 1932 and gifted the violin to his friend, Max von Laue, along with a philosophy book and a bicycle saddle. These items also joined the violin on auction, with the book selling for £2,200, while the bicycle saddle, estimated at £20,000 - £30,000, remained unsold.
Von Laue later gifted the items to Margarete Hommrich, whose great-great granddaughter put them up for sale.
Three phone bidders were said to have been heavily involved in the auction until the very end, according to Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Gloucester, who faciliated the sale.
Chris Albury, senior auctioneer and historical memorabilia specialist, described the sale of the violin as a ‘special moment’.
Speaking to the BBC, Albury said many people did not know Einstein played the violin. ’He always said that if he hadn’t been a scientist, he’d have liked to have been a musician.
’He started learning the violin at about the age of four and played it every day through his life.’
The violin was made in the late-19th century and is labelled ’Anton Zunterer, München 1894’. Einstein carved the word ‘Lina’ – his nickname for the instrument, short for ‘Violina’ – into the back plate of the violin. The instrument came with a nickel-mounted German bow in unusable condition.
According to the lot description, the bridge was slightly incorrectly sited to the violin’s soundpost, placed further up the table. There were no marks to indicate that a shoulder rest was used, consistent with images of Einstein playing the violin without one.
The sale of this instrument follows that of another one of Einstein’s former violins – in 2018, his 1933 violin made and gifted to him by Oscar Steger sold in the US at auction for $516,000, triple its estimate.
All photos courtesy dominicwinter.co.uk
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