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Violin Prices: A London dealer paid a record $53,000 at Sotheby’s Thursday for a violin made in 1911 by Genoa maker Enrico Rocca, and a 1931 gold and tortoise-shell bow went for $35,000, also a record. Despite these record sales, there were disappointments. A 1707 Stradivarius belonging to Harvard College was unsold when bidding dried up at $700,000, short of the owner’s reserve price, but it changed hands immediately afterward in a private deal. And a violin made by Joseph Guarnarius in 1694 was returned to its case when bidding stopped at $80,000. Sotheby’s had hoped for two or three times that.

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