Luigi Tarisio

Luigi Tarisio (Fontaneto d'Agogna (Novara) - 21 June 1796 – Milan - 1 November 1854) was an Italian violin dealer and collector.

He developed an interest in violins themselves, and as a connoisseur with a natural talent for business he began to acquire and resell some of the many fine instruments that were lying unused in the towns and villages of northern Italy.

In 1828 he made his greatest coup, acquiring a number of violins from Count Cozio of Salabue, including a 1716 Stradivari in unused condition.

He was a great dealer, but a greater amateur, for he had gems by him no money would buy'.There was an insatiable demand in northern Europe for what nobody wanted or appreciated in the south, and the absence of much competition gave him unique opportunities.

After his death it was the turn of Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, the leading Parisian dealer, to make the greatest purchase of his life.