Library of Congress Acquires 1690 Stradivari Tuscan-Medici Viola

The $30 million instrument will be played in the Library of Congress's 2025/26 concert series

Two generous donations totaling $30 million have allowed the Library of Congress to purchase the Stradivari Tuscan-Medici Viola of 1690 — an instrument that is considered to be one of the finest of the ten surviving Stradivari violas.

The instrument has been on loan to the library since 1977, but can now be retained in the collection permanently. It joins the five Stradivari instruments already in the collection, which were donated by Gertrude Clarke Whittall in 1935, and is only the second viola in the library's holdings.

The viola was acquired by Cameron Baird (a violist, philanthropist, and the chairman of the Music Department at
the State University of New York) in 1957. Upon his death, Baird's wife Jane became the custodian of the viola, and she decided that it should be held in the Library of Congress.

The Baird family funded $10 million of the acquisition, and a further $20 million was provided by David Fulton, a computer scientist and violinist who is also a private collector of Cremonese instruments. As a result, the instrument has been renamed the Stradivari Fulton, ex Baird, Tuscan-Medici viola.

The instrument will be heard in performance during the 2025/26 season of concerts from the Library of Congress, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

"This is an extraordinary gift to the Library and to the nation," said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. "We will continue to embrace the spirit of sharing this remarkable instrument with America and the world, creating opportunities for musicians to perform at the Library and beyond so audiences can experience this exquisite viola. I am personally grateful to the Fultons and the Bairds for their tremendous generosity in making this instrument available to the public as part of the Library’s collections."

"The viola will forever be the property of the nation and will be protected, heard, and available for study," said David Fulton. "It’s an ideal outcome. It is an altogether appropriate way to express our gratitude for the way we have lived, prospered, thrived, and been nurtured by this great nation, our beloved home. In fact, my wife Amy’s very existence is thanks to the safe haven the United States provided for her mother after her family fled the Holocaust in Austria. Moreover, it seems a very good way to memorialize the passion for great stringed instruments that has illuminated most of my life. A capstone for the collection, if you will."