A $45 Million Viola? The World's Newest Most-Expensive Instrument

John Cage would be pleased: If you listen very carefully, you may hear a world record shatter. In sealed bidding expected to end this week, auctioneers Sotheby’s and Ingles & Hayday have been taking offers for the “Macdonald” viola by Antonio Stradivari, the king of strings. They’ve estimated it to sell for more than $45 million—about three times the auction record for an instrument, currently held by a Stradivarius violin that sold for about $15.6 million in 2011.

Is that multiple a sign that a booming instrument market is reaching frothy levels along with prices for contemporary art? Not exactly. In fact, earlier this month a Stradivari violin valued at as much as $10 million went unsold at Christie’s after it was found in the Manhattan home of a reclusive American heiress.