A Few Words About the Messiah

Count Ignacio Alejandro Cozio di Salabue (1755-1840) - one of the greatest violin collectors of all time - is one of my heroes. Luigi Tarisio (1790-1854), too. If you're reading this, you must know both of these famous men - famous and popular among musicians who care and may even be passionate about violins - the mystery of their origin and construction. It has been said that chess, like women, is a great mystery. So too, are violins, especially the great and priceless Stradivarius "Messiah," housed in a British museum, which I believe to be a fake. It's quite possible that Don Antonio constructed a "Messiah" violin - what has been called near-perfect - sometime during his golden period (1700-1720), 1716 to be exact. Nevertheless, that violin and the one on display in the British Ashmolean Museum are probably not one and the same. Much after Stradivari's death in 1737, it was supposedly sold by Paolo Stradivari (Antonio's third son) to Count Cozio in 1775, who later sold it to Tarisio in 1827, who never parted with it but whose relatives, after his death, sold it to French violin maker J.B. Vuillaume in 1854. Stewart Pollens, at that time an employee of the Metropolitan Museum in New York did a fairly thorough examination of this famous fiddle - at the invitation of the Ashmolean - which led him to conclude that it (the violin on display) could not possibly be the "Messiah." These findings were first published way back in 1998, to the great consternation of the museum directors (and others). Any further research and examination of the instrument (also to be conducted by Mr. Pollens) was suddenly stopped - probably by interests which had a great deal to lose, had it ever been conclusively proved that the thing inside the glass case was not actually as old as it had to have been in order to bear the Stradivari name. Remember, this priceless gem (which has never been played) passed through the hands of the greatest violin copyist in history - Juan Bautista Vuillaume (1798-1875). It is fairly well-known that he made no less than ten copies of this famous "Messiah." In any case, to me, the Ashmolean "Messiah" just looks fake, period - I would guess even to the untrained eye. There are photos of it posted on several websites. Just look at it. Never trust an authority or expert who has something to gain by declaring an artifact to be genuine (or fake).
It is anomalies in the provenance of an instrument (the history of ownership) that sometimes lead a person to conclude that a fair amount of skepticism is warranted. As far as can be ascertained, the chain of title for the "Messiah" is as follows:
Antonio Stradivari (1716-1737) Paolo Stradivari (acquired it via inheritance and sold it in 1775) - Cozio (1775-1827) - Tarisio (1827-1854) - J.B. Vuillaume (1854-1875) - Delphin Alard (1875-1890) - W.E. Hill (1890-1891) - Robert Crawford (1891-1897) - Ernest Niccolini (1897-1904) - W.E.Hill (1904-1913) Richard Bennett (1913-1928) - unknown (1929-1930) - W.E. Hill (1931-1939) - Ashmolean.
In addition, there are certain serious inconsistencies between the Messiah descriptions jotted down by those who saw it and handled it originally and those given by the latest owner/dealers, namely W.E. Hill and Sons, who actually took the violin apart. Furthermore, the construction itself does not bear certain stylistic earmarks of any Strad of the same period. Here are a few references that articulate (with much greater scholarship and authority than I could ever possess) other misgivings about this celebrated Stewart Pollens (various books and articles), Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum, Stradivari Society, Count Cozio Di Salabue, Luigi Tarisio.