The Joachim-Ma Stradivari has been sold at Sotheby’s for US$11.25 million (AU$17.94m) to an anonymous buyer.

The hefty price tag fell below Sotheby’s estimates at between US$12-18 million, which could have made it the most expensive instrument ever sold. Bidding began at US$8 million before wrapping up just a minute later at $10 million, with the final cost including Sotheby’s fees.

The Joachim-Ma Stradivarius, 1714. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.

By comparison, the 1721 Lady Blunt violin, sold for US$15.9 million in 2011 and the 1714 da Vinci, ex-Seidel, fetched US$15.34 million. Alongside the Joachim-Ma, these violins were all built within Stradivari’s ‘Golden Period’, a 25-year span recognised where the Italian luthier produced his finest instruments.

The violin was put up on auction by the New England Conservatory, who was gifted the instrument by its namesake – the Chinese violinist and alumn Si-Hon Ma – who asked that the instrument’s sale go toward funding scholarship programs. As a result of this sale, it will fund the largest scholarship program in the institution’s history.

The Joachim-Ma was also previously owned by Joseph Joachim. Sotheby’s noted that Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major was “almost...