In 2000, when pop star George Michael paid 1.67 million for John Lennon’s Steinway Model Z piano, he can only have been thinking of the sound investment he had made. Pianos, the most played instrument in the world, are durable enough to last 40 years if they are properly looked after.
This rather average and unassuming musical instrument, on which John Lennon wrote the smash hit, ‘Imagine’, made history as the most expensive piano ever sold thanks to it astronomical sale price. Founded in 1853 in New York, the American and German company, Steinway & Sons, who were celebrated for their production of handmade pianos, manufactured this piece of history, which went on to tour the world in 2007, visiting sites of past violence.
The renowned manufacturers not only produced this expensive example. In Steinberg’s factory in Hamburg, Germany in 2008, the manufacturer tailor-made the world’s most expensive grand piano with a price tag of $1.2 million. With a reproduction of the artwork of Chinese painter Shi Qui adorning the lid, the instrument was also made up of 40 different woods. With the moniker ‘Sound of Harmony’, the piano took four years to produce and was eventually bought by art collector Guo Qingxiang. It later made an appearance at the Expo 2010 Shangai China.
In 1997, another piano of Steinway & Sons, the Alma Tadema, sold for $1.2 million, making it the second most expensive grand piano sold at auction. Originally commissioned by New York millionaire Henry G. Marquand in 1894, the piano was described as the most decorative piano ever made because of its oil paintings, intricate carvings and complex inlays, all produced by famous painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
Showcased by Jon Kuhn in 2009, the Limited Edition Kuhn-Bsendorfer piano, which took 18 months to build, is known as the most expensive new limited edition piano at the present time. Designed by L Bsendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH of Vienna, Austria and Jon Kuhn, the world’s foremost cold glass sculptor, it has a price tag of $1.2 million.
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