so what s the highest price ever paid for a stradivarius instrument? the answer is b. $15.9 million for the lady blood violin sold in london in 2011. jamie: in the fall of 2011, the heirs of bernard greenhouse anxiously await the ct scan on the stradivarius. millions of dollars are at stake. radiologist steven performed a scan just like this one. the diseases that affect an old cello is caused by two things. one is cracks. the other abnormality is wormholes. channeled through wood until sometimes there s hardly any original wood left.