THE Stradivarius in Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum is 300 years old—despite
looking as good as new. The violin’s pristine condition and uncertainties about
its provenance had led some to suggest that it is a mid-19th century fake. But a
new analysis of the instrument’s wood shows that it may even have been made from
the same tree as two undoubtedly genuine strads.
The violin was said to have been crafted by the master instrument maker
Antonio Stradivari in 1716. It was sold to an itinerant Tuscan dealer, Luigi
Tarisio, who boasted of his wonderful instrument in Paris. But as he…
