The Red Violin

Duval, a Montréal-based auction house, is in charge of the disposition through auction of a recently discovered private collection of stringed instruments, the jewel of the collection being the so-called red violin – so named for its color – made by Nicolò Bussotti in the late seventeenth century, and most famously once owned by British virtuoso Frederick Pope in the late nineteenth century. The restoration and verification of the instruments, including the authentication of the red violin, was overseen by New York based expert Charles Morritz. Through flashbacks, the history of the ownership of the red violin is presented, some of those stories, while perhaps not as renowned as that of Pope, nonetheless no less interesting. Included in that history is Bussotti’s creation of the instrument, which he intended for his yet unborn offspring – who he knew would be a son – it being the perfect instrument in his estimation especially in comparison to all his other creations, and the reason behind the last minute decision to finish the instrument in the distinctive red varnish. Accompanying the stories of the red violin’s ownership is that history being present in the bidding room in the importance for those potential bidders of those individual connections to the violin. Interwoven with these stories is the one consistent item beyond the violin itself tying those stories together, namely a tarot card reading for Bussotti’s wife Anna late in her pregnancy by the Bussottis’ elderly servant Cesca concerning what Anna was anticipating as a difficult birth.