OREANDA-NEWS. October 25, 2011. The unique violin “Robreht” made by famous master Giuseppe Guarneri was presented in Yekaterinburg and its sounds were listened  to on the 15 of September. Meritorious artist of Russia Dmitry Kogan played the violin on the concert of international Europe-Asia festival which was held in the capital of the Urals.

The instrument was bought by Kogan’s  Fund of unique cultural projects, co-founder of the fund is the deputy of HRLA of Sverdlovskaya region, the chairman of the Board of Directors in GC “AVS Group” Valery Saveljev.

It should be reminded that Valery Saveljev is a longtime fan of classic music and has already presented seven rare musical instruments to Sverdlovskaya Philharmonics. The pearl of the collection is a quartet of Vil’om (two violins, alt and violoncello), no one orchestra of the world has such instruments like these. In May of 2011 Valery Saveljev and a famous violinist Dmitry Kogan founded the Fund of unique cultural projects support under the name of Kogan.

The tasks of the Fund are to search, to buy and restore musical instruments by the best masters of the world and then to present them to the best musicians of Russia.

Guarneri’s “Robreht” was made by a master of Cremona in 1728 and for three hundred years was in many famous hands. Andre Robberehts, the founder of Franco-Belgian violin school, in his honor the instrument was given a name. Experts consider that in 1820-1830 the maestro Robberehts was playing just this violin, at that time he was a violinist at the court of the Netherlands’ king Willem the First.

It was found that the famous instrument was in the collection of violins of the Royal Swedish musical Academy, which was founded by the king Gustav the III.

The violin has its own history in Russia: a maestro Dmitry Kogan played the instrument on the first concert-presentation of the Fund on the 26 of May “Five great violins”. It was in the Columned Hall of the House of unions in Moscow. The audience noted that this violin had unforgettable sounds being among the violins of Stradivari, Amati, Guadanini, Vil’om.  When D.Kogan asked what violin to choose , the majority of listeners named the violin of Guarneri. By the way, there are only about 100 violins of Guarneri in the world now and they are considered to be more valuable than Stradivari’s ones, they are 5 times more in number than Guarneri’s.

Valery Saveljev said that in June the Council of the Fund decided to buy the violin “Robreht” of Guarneri. After that for several months we were negotiating with the owner of the violin. In the beginning of September the Fund gave the violin to the famous violinist and meritorious artist of Russia Dmitry Kogan.  Valery Saveljev doesn’t want to disclose the cost of the violin. However, the best instruments of the well-known master are known to have a very high price, more than 10 million dollars. Previously, the unique violin of another Italian master Antonio Stradivari  had been bought for 17 million USD .

The former owner of the violin bought it to invest money, so the violin wasn’t used.  It was in ideal state, wasn’t restored or remodeled.

Dmitry Kogan is going to give more than a half of his concerts in Russia, the sounds of unique violin  can be heard by the people of the farthest places of the country. “These violins must show high art and give people pleasure from Kaliningrad to Magadan. We want to be an example to follow for big Russian business, it is high time to do the same”, said the famous violinist.

The representatives of business are ready for charity. “The Kogan’s  Fund of unique cultural  projects is going to buy three violins of Amati, Stradivari and Guarneri more,- declared Valery Saveljev.- Soon we will have dozens of violins and we will give them to Russian musicians. The Board of Trustees of the Fund will look for new musicians, consider the potential for creative possibilities of orchestras and soloists and give them the possibility to play these instruments which they would never have without the help of Maecenas”.