The Stradivarius violin seen on "Pawn Stars" Season 17 turned out to be bogus. However, if it had been the genuine article, its asking price of $700,000 actually might have been considered to fall on the more conservative side of the market.
For reference, the value and rarity of Stradivarius violins stems from the fact that they are incredibly high-quality instruments handcrafted by the legendary Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari himself. Over the course of his career as a craftsman, he constructed just over 1,000 Stradivarius instruments — an intense level of scarcity for a product that consequently made the high demand for them all the more fervent. As the centuries have gone on, the number of surviving violins made by Stradivari has dwindled even further, driving their value up drastically.
All of this context is to say that the Stradivarius violins that are still in acceptable quality have eye-popping valuations as some of the most expensive instruments ever. The 1716 Messiah – Salabue Stradivarius is generally considered to be the rarest of them all, with an estimated value of $20 million — though it is currently on display as a historical relic at Oxford, England's Ashmolean Museum. The vast majority of the other Stradivarius violins out there have either been valued or sold for several million dollars apiece.
