October 21, 2013
A Curtin & Alf copy of the c.1731 ‘Gibson-Huberman’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ violin has set a new world auction record for an instrument by a living maker. Built by Joseph Curtin and Gregg T. Alf in 1985 for Ruggiero Ricci, the violin sold at Tarisio in New York for $132,000 (including buyer’s premium). Ricci was living in Ann Arbor, MI, when Curtin & Alf set up shop there in 1985. He commissioned two more violins after the ‘Huberman’ copy, one being a copy of his Lorenzo Storioni, the second based on the ‘Haddock’ Guarneri del Gesu of 1734.
