At auction, Albert Einstein's first violin brings in £86,000

When Albert Einstein fled Nazi Germany, he left his first violin behind

Chris Carter claims that it became the priciest instrument not previously owned by a concert violinist last week.

Naturally, Albert Einstein's creation of the General Theory of Relativity is what made him most famous. Although he occasionally shared our confusion about his findings, he also made significant contributions to quantum theory. The fact that three scientists were given the Nobel Prize in Physics last week for their research into quantum mechanics, which was done 40 years ago, only serves to highlight how far science has come and how much more we still don't know. Einstein's other interests, which are less well known, included playing the violin in addition to figuring out how the universe was put together.

Approximately ten violins are believed to have belonged to Einstein during his lifetime. However, his family purchased what is thought to have been his first full-size instrument for him in 1894, just before the young Einstein departed for Switzerland to finish his education. Einstein carved the name "Lina" into the wood, which he used to refer to all of his violins. It would serve as his main instrument throughout the years he spent developing his well-known theories, until about 1920.

He gave the violin to fellow Nobel laureate and friend Max von Laue in 1932 before fleeing Germany for the United States to avoid the rise of the Nazis. Laue gave it to a friend, Margarete Hommrich of Braunschweig, twenty years later. Her great-great-daughter then consigned the instrument to Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester, where it was sold last week. They did so for 860,000 hammer prices. "Einstein's violin is the most expensive instrument that wasn't owned by a concert violinist or made by Stradivarius, with the buyer's premium of 26.4 percent bringing the total amount paid to over 1 million," BBC News reports.

In order to investigate and verify the instrument's provenance, Dominic Winter Auctioneers enlisted Paul Wingfield, director of studies in music at Trinity College, Cambridge, who also happened to have recently written a musical drama titled Einstein's Violin. "I believe Einstein used the violin to think things through," Wingfield says to Rhys Blakely in The Times. It simply gave him a better way to organize his thoughts.

The violins were so significant to Einstein that, in his 1927 will, he listed them alongside his books and scientific manuscripts. He revised that will in 1934, not long after coming to the United States. The document was torn to pieces, but it was recovered from the bin by a Princeton Bank & Trust Company employee, who held his assets. It was valued at up to £30,000 when it was put up for sale with Christie's in New York yesterday, along with Einstein's personal letters and photos. His other letters and notes have sold for more than £1 million in recent years.

In 1950, Einstein left his violin to his grandson, Bernhard Einstein, in his last will and testament. If he hadn't chosen to become a scientist, Einstein had said, he would have preferred to be a musician. Science gained what music lost.