Florian leonhard nyc12/5/2023 The finite quality is really exceptional-much more so than gold. Sean continued, “These instruments were commissioned for royalty and nobility, and for the finest musicians of the day. He is quieter than his sister-earnest and sober, with occasional excursions into goofiness. He worked as a hedge-fund analyst at Fortress Investment Group before moving on to fine instruments, by which he has been obsessed since childhood. “If you own a Stradivarius, you become part of history’s most exclusive club,” Sean said. “That’s a great way of putting it,” Lauren said. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission was due to review the unprecedented transaction that morning, and Allain awaited notification on his phone, which was perched next to his espresso cup. Allain and the Carpenters had arranged a deal involving a “bitcoin swap”: a newly created framework would hedge the risk, so that the agreed-upon dollar price would be guaranteed for both seller and buyer, despite fluctuations in the value of bitcoin. One of its clients had significant holdings of the virtual currency. The Leo Group had its own unusual requirement: it wished to pay in bitcoin. Discretion about the seller’s identity was necessary, she said: “Our family deals a lot with the three D’s-distress, divorce, and, unfortunately, death.” The violin, which dated from Stradivari’s so-called golden period, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, was in good, if not perfect, condition. The seller, Lauren explained, was “in a liquidity crunch.” Lauren, who was a senior account manager at Google until she and her brothers started the business, four years ago, is shrewd and practical. It was lying in its silk-lined case in the parlor down the hall. The Carpenters had the very thing for Allain: a Stradivari violin that had just gone on the market. In the past decade, he has begun a very profitable process of divestment. Fulton began collecting violins three decades ago and amassed one of the greatest collections in history. The Carpenters point to David Fulton, a software entrepreneur who attended the University of Chicago and was the concertmaster of the student orchestra there. Affluent music lovers who foresaw the potential of investing in instruments have reaped rewards. The value of a Stradivari violin has never gone down for the past forty years, the violins have increased in value at an average annual rate of between eight and twelve per cent. Allain explained that the Leo Group had been attempting to formulate a sophisticated tax strategy: “We were looking for a rare, and illiquid, asset.” He had considered buying art, but, after meeting Sean Carpenter, through a colleague, he was persuaded that a violin would be a better solution to his tax puzzle, and represent a solid investment as well. A sentimental painting, by Alfred de Dreux, of a girl flanked by two dogs dominated one wall. and their brother David Aaron Carpenter, twenty-eight, who serves as C.F.O.Īllain joined the siblings for a breakfast meeting, around a dining-room table laden with bagels, smoked fish, quiche, salads, and cookies. Sean’s sister, Lauren Sarah Carpenter, twenty-nine, who is the company’s C.O.O. It was also the home of Sean Avram Carpenter, the company’s thirty-three-year-old C.E.O. The town house was the headquarters of Carpenter Fine Violins, a dealer in rare stringed instruments. One morning in February, Matthew Allain, the senior managing director of the Leo Group, a private wealth-management company, visited a town house on Central Park West in order to discuss an unusual acquisition.
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