with you. do you have a strange inheritance story you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strange inheritance.com. a world famous musician dies and leaves his daughters his prized instrument. >> love, pressure, his heart, his voice. >> it's more than 300 years old and could be worth many millions. but this strange inheritance is about more than money. a european countess, and a huge financial dilemma for his heirs. >> it was clear he did not want it to be hidden away. i'm jamie colby.

i'm an cape cod, massachusetts, heading to the small town of we wellfleet. i'm here to learn about a strange inheritance that formed a family's life for half a century. >> my name is elena. in 2011, my sister and i inherited an extraordinary object from our father. this was my father's home for many years. he and my mother built it in 1955. >> her father was a virtuoso cellist bern ard greenhouse who died in 2011 at the age of 95. greenhouse spent most of his career playing with the bozart's trio which made its debut in 1955 and catapulted to fame. >> he was very warm and very charming but very involved with

his work. and he traveled all the time as he became more and more successful. >> as one of the world's premie should be playing one of the world's finest cellos. he began searching in europe for an instrument equal to his talent. >> he witneent to dealers and instrument shops and said, have you heard any rumors about great cellos. >> in 1957, he found one in the west german city of auchen. >> your father came home with something he longed for. searched for. >> i was very young, but i knew he had found something very important. >> very important indeed. it was a stradivarius crafted in italy around 1707 by the master of them all, antonio stradivari.

sound expensive? it was. >> it was a huge sum of money for us for our family. and it made a huge difference in our lives to pay it off over many years. >> dealers estimate bernard paid around $100,000. an astronomical sum in the late 1950s when the average american house sold for $18,000. for greenhouse, the instrument became a part of him. >> he call it every superulative. his love, his heart, his treasure, his voice. >> at the height of his career, greenhouse performed nearly 200 times a year. >> i always wanted to hop in the cello case and travel with my farth wherever he was going. >> when he wasn't in concert, he taught at julliard and here at

home in his cape cod studio. this is where elena also played the cello as a child. >> you sometimes put your name in his appointment book in order to get time with him. >> i didn't do that to get a cello lesson. i did that to get an hour of his time. >> did you ever play the strad? >> no. >> why? >> never. i never played well enough to play the strad. >> by whose opinion? >> i guess by my father's but i never wanted to. >> can i hear him play? >> i would love it. ♪ >> having the music is wonderful. it's hard, but wonderful.

isn't it beautiful? >> wow. >> haunting. ♪ >> what's the first thing you do when you have to decide whether to keep or sell the family jewel? >> i think the first question you ask yourself is, do you have any use for or love for the family jewel? and then i think a big part of it is, can you afford to keep the family jewel? >> the financial implications of this strange inheritance worry elena and her husband nicholas who are both college professors nearing retirement. >> what would it entail to keep the strad? >> insurance, storage and coming up with the taxes the government wants. >> did you hear from them? >> no, they just said let those people keep their inheritance. we have so many other -- yes, of course. >> does that weigh into whether

you have to sell something, the fact you have to pay taxes? >> absolutely. >> what should elena's family do? they decide it's too expensive to keep the strad. they are keenly aware a successful auction could yield millions. quite a nice nest egg in retirement. selling a 300-year-old stradivarius is no small undertaking. >> it's a cut-throat world in the world of musical instruments. we came to understand all kinds of things that could go wrong. >> that's next. but first -- our strange inheritance quiz question. what percentage of an inheritance does the federal government currently tax? 30%? 40%? or 50%? the answer when we return. d. it's only required to contain 51% real cheese. with sargento 100% real, natural cheese slices, a patty melt becomes more than just a patty. ham unites with its better half.

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sale of the cello, and he preferred to let us figure it out so that he could have it until the very last day of his life. >> i'm in boston to understand how elena and her family deal with their strange inheritance. elena does her homework and decides to sell it through chris reuning from reuning & son. he's also a cellist and lootier, someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. >> how do you decide what bernard's stradivarius is worth? >> you have to evaluate the quality and to know what the market history has been. in this case we knew what other stradivarius cellos had sold for

and we can compare the quality to this. >> a similar cello sold for $5 million. over the past several years, collectors have driven the price of rare instrumtss way up and each one has its own history. a,nique story that's a big factor in whether it fetches a six, seven or eight figure price at auction. no one knows this story better than elena. he wrote a book about it. it describes the painstaking restoration his farther-in-law commissioned for the countess. >> the wear and tear on such instruments is very high aside from all the physical stress. there's change in climate, change in temperature and change in humidity. the cello was almost as weary as

he. >> it details a harrowing process. it was popped open with a knife and sat in pieces for months while some of the wood was patched. >> bernie got more and more restless and more and more ready to have his darling returned. he said then i'll never let it go again, and he didn't. >> but he played the strad for more than another decade and let his students play it, too. bern ard remained so attached that he slept with it. chris reuning believes every serious bidder will demand proof that it has no significant flaws. >> we did a ct scan of the cello. >> like a doctor does? >> yes. >> is that unusual. >> there were some questions if there was a crack. >> chris reuning called me one day and said i have this cello i

need ct scanned right away. >> chris flies with the strad to a hospital in minnesota where experts are ready to diagnose the patient. the worry? that sums could be wiped from this sale if it has cracks or worm holes made inside the cello from tiny larvae. >> would that equate to thousands of dollars? hundreds of thousands of dollars? another quiz question -- in 2013 a picasso painting sold for a record $155 million. what's the record for a stradivari instrument? $98.2 million? $15.9 million or $45.2 million? you pay your auto insurance premium every month on the dot. you're like the poster child for paying on time. and then one day you tap the bumper of a station wagon.

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>> so what's the highes so what's the highest price ever paid for a stradivari instrument? the answer is b, $15.9 million for the lady blond violin sold in london in 2011. in the fall of 2011, the heirs of bernard greenhouse await the results of a ct scan. not on a person but on a 300-year-old stradivari cello. millions of dollars are at stake. radiologist steven sir performed the ct scan. >> the diseases that affect the old cellos s are two things. worm holes carved by larvae which eat the channels of wood until sometimes there's no original wood left. >> what exactly is happening as it goes through?

>> the ct scanner produces x-rays which are high energy light beams. and very thin sheet. >> this is the actual ct scan of the stradivarius. chris shares with me his bottom line. >> this cello has been in constant use. it's been cared for beautifully. but there are cracks. >> whatever tiny cracks there might be, they don't affect the cello's unique sound. chris is able to set the official opening bid for bernard greenhouse's cello at $6.2 million. there's just one hitch. the delbanco's may not accept the highest bid if it's from some rich investor who just wants to lock the countess away in a vault. >> a cello is not even half

itself if it's not heard. it had been his express desire and conviction that it be played. >> and you made a decision that the strad was better in the hands of someone who could play it than on the shelf of someone who would pay more for it? >> potentially pay more for it but we just didn't want it on a shelf. >> the idea is they'd be able to open the bids, look at all the factors, the price, who is buying it and choose one of those bids. >> chris agrees to this unusual condition. it's not every day you get to sell a 300-year-old stradivarius. off he goes with the stradivarius on a world marketing tour. >> all the chelists i showed it to were shocked about the sound. all of them says it was the best cello they'd played. >> i had to wonder, is the sound

of a strad really so divine? after all, researchers recently blindfolded magicians and had >> to me, that sounds as good as it gets. >> try this one. is a good qual.

this was made in what year? >> 1780s. >> i have one more request. >> if i were a student of yours, could you teach me to play one note? >> sure. >> would you let me? >> i suppose. >> i sense hesitation. ♪ >> am i hurting the value of this cello? >> yes. >> sorry. >> it

opened them and pick a buyer. oo what w >> what was the emotion in the room when you had the first bid for her to look at. >> there wasn't a dry eye in the room. this cello was so much part of their life and signified her relationship to her father. >> the it was more painful than i expected it to be. we all sat down in a little seating group in his office and we put the cello as part of the seating group and i began to feel more and more upset. we just closed the case. i have never seen it again. >> in the end, the greenhouses accepted a bid they feel they cannot refuse. it comes not from a cello virtue owes so but from a farm

billionaire. that's one last twist to the story when we return on "strange inheritance." get complete protection. nexium level protection.

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oh, what a relief it is. jamie: eight months >> eight months after cellist bernard greenhouse dies his heirs accept a secret bid on the statavero cello. the price it is significantly higher than the $6.2 million opening bid. >> what is significantly higher than 6.2 million? >> the reason i am not disclosing the price is out of respect for the buyer. >> a fair bid to me is 15-20 percent hire. significantly higher is 50 percent higher. is it between 15 percent and 50 percent? >> good try. >> okay, so i tried. the delvancos are keeping it a secret, too. were they able to honor greenhouse's witch that the

count tess be played and not shut away in a vault or a museum. the buyer is a canadian billionaire. she decides to permanently loan the count tess to a 20-year-old canadian player knowned stefan petro. >> i have known about bernard greenhouse for years. she is a huge figure in music history to have the chance to even touch his cello was just an honor. ♪ >> after the auction they never intended to see the countess again. but then we offered them a chance to meet stefan for the first time at the carriage house recite el hall near boston.

♪ >> as i listen i can't help but think if stefan performs as long as greenhouse did the cello will be heard for many decades to come. >> that was lovely. so good to hear you play. >> what a pleasure to meet both of you. >> and you. really. that was very beautiful. >> i was quite nervous, actually. >> what a great pleasure. >> there she is. >> when this tale of music and money, they feel satisfied they have found a way to split the difference. >> more money might have made a difference in your life.

how do you walk away from that? >> there's never enough if you think in those terms, an extra million or six would hardly have nothing. >> we are really happy with the outcome. >> before we go, i want to share this last thought. you know, years ago back in the old days bernard greenhouse and the trio could count on a break from the airlines when they had to fly the cello allowing bernard to buy a child's ticket at half price. well once at the airport a ticket agent called mr mr. greenhouse over after seeing the name cello on the ticket and said mr. greenhouse, how old is your son cello to which bernard laughed, winked and sounded 250 years old. i am jamie colby, thank you so much for joining us on "strange inheritance." don't forget. you can't take it with you. >> do you have a strange

inheritance story you would like to share with us? we would love to hear it. send me an e-mail or go to our web site strange inheritance.com. >> every town has its secrets. >> you sneak around you get caught. >> sara's life was very complicated. >> she competed in 19 pageants. >> she was magnetic. >> she said tara is missing no one knows where she is. >> swamps and ponds. >> a glove seemed out of place. >> we had identifiable prints. >> she had been in love with him