A violin by
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù

The known history of this violin extends back to the beginning of the last century when it was owned by the Austrian violinist Hugo Kortschak. He had acquired it while on a concert tour of Spain and the violin is still sometimes known as the “Spanish Joseph”.

The violin passed through the Berlin dealer W. H. Hammig to Rudolph Wurlitzer of New York who in turn sold it in 1923 to the collector John T. Roberts. At the time of the publication of “The Violin-Makers of the Guarneri Family” by W. E. Hill & Sons of London in 1931 the violin was again in the possession of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company.

The “Kortschak” was sold by Emil Herrmann in 1942 to Hyman Rabushka and in the mid-1960s was acquired by the German engineer and industrialist Hans D. Isenberg of Wilmette, Illinois. The next owner of the violin was the notable collector Charles M. Sin of Hong Kong from whom it was sold in 1993 by Bein & Fushi to the Italian virtuoso Uto Ughi. Shortly afterwards it was acquired by Richard Bogomolny and Patricia Kozerefski and was exhibited at The Violin Masterpieces of Guarneri del Gesù held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1994.

Rare Violins of New York sold The "Kortschak" in 2021 and it is on loan to Sirena Huang through In Consortium.