Stradivari cello doesn’t sell

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A rare cello made nearly 300 years ago by Italian master Antonio Stradivari that had been expected to set a record price failed to sell in an online auction that ended Friday.

The Tarisio auctioneers’ website showed only one bid of not quite $1.35 million had been placed, which failed to meet the reserve price. The cello had been forecast to sell for between $1.48 million and $1.97 million.

‘We are now working to put together an after-auction sale with interested parties,’ a spokesman for Tarisio said.

The cello is named the Fleming for its most recent owner, the late British cellist Amaryllis Fleming, who died in 1999 and was the sister of James Bond author Ian Fleming. It is being sold by her family and the proceeds are to go to the Royal College of Music in London, where she studied and taught.

The auction record for a cello is $1.03 million, paid for another Stradivari cello, the Bonjour, at a Christie’s auction in 1999.

--Reuters