Messiah Stradivarius

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Messiah-Salabue Stradivarius of 1716 is a violin made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari of Cremona. The Messiah, sobriquet Le Messie, remained in the Stradivarius workshop until his death in 1737. It was then sold by his son Paolo to Count Cozio di Salabue in 1775, and for a time, the violin bore the name Salabue. The instrument was then purchased by Luigi Tarisio in 1827. Upon Tarisio's death, in 1854, French luthier Jean Baptiste Vuillaume of Paris purchased The Messiah along with Tarisio's entire collection . "One day Tarisio was discoursing to Vuillaume on the merits of this unknown and marvelous instrument, when the violinist Jean-Delphin Alard, exclaimed: 'Then your violin is like the Messiah: one always expects him but he never appears'. Thus the violin was baptized with the name by which it is still known." The Messiah was bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. As a condition in the will of the former owner, the Museum can never allow the violin to be played.