Highly successful violin collector finds that it's time to let go

David Fulton's mother once thought her gifted son would grow up to be a great violinist beloved by audiences the world over.

Instead, Fulton quips, "I am beloved by violin dealers the world over."

Ever since he acquired his first world-class violin a quarter-century ago — a 1698 Pietro Guarneri of Mantua, which required a loan bigger than the mortgage on his house — Fulton has been hooked on collecting the world's most treasured instruments.

A very capable violinist who might have had a career as an orchestra musician, Fulton was also an academic prodigy who entered the University of Chicago at 16. Later he became a member of the Hartford (Conn.) Symphony's second violin section.

He gave up that position to go to graduate school and went on to chair the fledgling computer-science department at Bowling Green State University. That path took him away from violin playing — but made his later acquisition of prized violins possible.

In 2002, when the collection was at its height, magazines and industry insiders called it the world's finest. Why, then, would he want to sell off seven of the instruments, as he has in the past few years?

Now 62, Fulton says it's a matter of there being "no worlds left to conquer. For me, part of the fun of the collecting process was trying to get the very best instruments. Anything better than what I have is in museums. I've been there, done that."

Fulton's children are nearly grown as well. "It's time to travel. The collection is best enjoyed when you're not moving around."

The recent completion of an 80-foot diesel/electric boat — three years in the building — adds impetus to those travel plans for Fulton and his wife, Amy.

Finally, Fulton says, the instruments he sold are "virtuoso tools. For me to play the 'General Kyd' [Stradivarius, 1714] or the 'Carrodus' [Guarnerius del Gesù, 1743] is like trying to drive a racing Ferrari in traffic. You don't play Mozart quartets with them. When Vadim Repin [a well-known young Russian violinist] used the 'Carrodus' in concert with the Seattle Symphony, he said it was 'like trying to ride a wild horse.' "

Both those instruments sold for world-record prices, Fulton says without elaborating. Other instruments have gone to foundations, museums and individuals, all of them overseas. Fulton was surprised how quickly the instruments sold; he had thought it might take up to 20 years to find the right buyers at the right prices.