An investment option as fit as a fiddle

As antique violins go, it is a remarkable specimen. It was made in the late 1600s by the Amati family, the celebrated violin makers. The instrument’s back, ribs, neck and scroll are maple, its top a fine pine; its varnish has a honeyed, golden tone. What makes the violin most noteworthy, however, is one of its former owners: Benito Mussolini.

“That the violin is attached to a famous – or in this case infamous – person does make it worth more, but it is impossible to say by how much,” says Alfredo Halegua, who currently owns it.