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The ill-fated feline belonged to San Marino's tourism and posts minister Federico Pedini Amati, a former leader of the tiny landlocked republic.

Amati's McKenzie thinks the tricky environment may begin to improve even if house prices decline next year and the volume of housing transactions falls.

The instruments — a harp by Stradivari and a cello by the master luthier Nicola Amati — appear to have been made from the same 17th-century spruce.

That could have been Amati, who, by the mid-17th century, was well established and also living in Cremona, a city in what is now Italy.

The violin itself is naturally the most important factor in determining its value, with instruments made by the Stradivari, Amati and Guarneri families of Renaissance Italy commanding the highest prices.