# World's largest violin collection



## KenOC

The world's largest collection of historical violins is housed in a splendid museum in…wait for it…southern Taiwan. A fascinating article from CNN.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...s-worlds-largest-violin-collection/ar-BBNTRiR


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## joen_cph

It does indeed seem to be quality art items, not the usual, more or less random stuff often collected by the _nouveaux riches_.


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## JAS

KenOC said:


> The world's largest collection of historical violins is housed in a splendid museum in…wait for it…southern Taiwan. A fascinating article from CNN.
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...s-worlds-largest-violin-collection/ar-BBNTRiR


It must be nice to have money.


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## KenOC

JAS said:


> It must be nice to have money.


I like this line: "The museum charges TWD200 ($6.50) to enter but is free for Tainan residents and students so 'the farmers working in the fields nearby can visit all the time.' "

I can see it. "Old Wang, would you watch the water buffalo for a bit? I want to pop over to the museum and check out their new Guarneri."


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## senza sordino

Well this is interesting. At least the collector is showing his collection to the public, and some of the instruments have been lent for free. That's good, because otherwise they're mere blocks of wood, as quoted in the article. I've made that argument before here on TC that it's not good that some of these instruments are being bought by investors but not played. They're meant to be heard not seen.


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## KenOC

senza sordino said:


> Well this is interesting. At least the collector is showing his collection to the public, and some of the instruments have been lent for free. That's good, because otherwise they're mere blocks of wood, as quoted in the article. I've made that argument before here on TC that it's not good that some of these instruments are being bought by investors but not played. They're meant to be heard not seen.


Yes, I like the bit about Yo-Yo Ma borrowing a cello. This is all good news.


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## Larkenfield

Glad to know that many of these vintage violins are still being made available for others to play and hear!


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## JAS

senza sordino said:


> Well this is interesting. At least the collector is showing his collection to the public, and some of the instruments have been lent for free. That's good, because otherwise they're mere blocks of wood, as quoted in the article. I've made that argument before here on TC that it's not good that some of these instruments are being bought by investors but not played. They're meant to be heard not seen.


Arguably, they are meant to be heard and seen, as they are beautiful in many ways, but your point that they were not meant to just sit in a case collecting dust is certainly valid.


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## senza sordino

JAS said:


> Arguably, they are meant to be heard and seen, as they are beautiful in many ways, but your point that they were not meant to just sit in a case collecting dust is certainly valid.


Of course, that's exactly what I mean.

And you can argue that a violin that isn't played regularly actually degrades, as I read online, "the violin goes to sleep". It's probably hard to prove scientifically, but some say that after months or years of no use, not stressing the instrument with vibrations will shrink the violin. The sound is dull. And even if you don't play the violin for months or years, you must keep the strings under tension otherwise the instrument will collapse, the bridge will fall off, the sound post will fall, and probably more bad things to happen.


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## JAS

This article about Paganini's "canon" seems to suggest that while a violin may benefit from playing, sitting for even long periods unplayed is not necessarily seriously detrimental to the instrument: https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/the-paganini-cannon-violin/


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