David Bromberg fears huge violin collection must be split up

WLIMINGTON, Del. – David Bromberg, a master of stringed-instrument Americana, says a deal to sell his massive collection of historic violins to the Library of Congress has fallen through.

The singer-songwriter and session musician has compiled a collection of 263 historic American violins over the years, and at 73, was hoping to sell it intact for $1.7 million as his retirement plan.

Now he fears the collection will have to be broken up and sold separately.

The Delaware News journal reports that the Library of Congress announced in 2016 that it would buy the collection Bromberg spent 50 years curating. It even set up a centre for their study. It would’ve been among the library’s largest instrument collections. Bromberg said library officials told him they now have other priorities.