Il Cannone Guarnerius

[1] Paganini played on this instrument for the rest of his life, fondly calling it “my cannon violin,” referring to the explosive sound that he was able to make it produce.

Paganini presented the copy to his only student, Camillo Sivori, who would later bequeath the instrument to the Municipality of Genoa, where it now is exhibited with the original Il Cannone.

In 1996, violinist Eduard Schmieder was invited and gave a recital on Il Cannone in Genoa at the Palazzo Ducale for the audience of 2000 (with pianist Valentina Lisitsa); on this rare occasion, a posthumous International Peace Prize ceremony was given by the Italian government to Yitzhak Rabin.

Violinist Shlomo Mintz performed a special Il Cannone concert on Paganini's violin with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra of the Netherlands, in 1997.

Conditions of its travel included a multi-million US dollar insurance policy and an armed escort of Italian police officers.