Poland launches campaign to buy Stradivarius violin

The campaign is the brainchild of Andrzej Kosendiak, the director of the National Forum for Music in Wrocław, south-western Poland.

He told a press conference in Warsaw on Thursday that a purchase of a Stradivarius, in time for the centenary of Polish independence in 2018, would be a historic event.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, two Polish musicians, the virtuoso and composer Karol Lipiński (1790-1861) and the violinist Bronisław Huberman (1882-1947), owned Stradivarius instruments.

Lipiński’s Strad is now used by Frank Almond, leader of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, while the American violinist Joshua Bell plays on Huberman’s instrument, which he bought for almost USD 4 million.

The appeal to raise funds for a Polish Stradivarius is addressed to major companies and financial institutions. According to Kosendiak, a successful campaign would promote Polish music.

The appeal has been signed by 224 prominent personalities, mostly musicians, including Anne-Sophie Mutter (herself the owner of two Strads), the composer Krzysztof Penderecki, the conductors Paul McCreesh, Giovanni Antonini and John Eliot Gardiner, and Polish violinists Wanda Wiłkomirska and Krzysztof Jakowicz. (mk/pk)