A rare Stradivarius violin – once owned by a famous violinist – is rejoining the world after laying unused and forgotten in a closet.

The 1731 Strad was owned by violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer in the early 1800s. The violin is named after him.

So was Beethoven’s ninth violin sonata.

A U.S. copper magnate and politician named William Clark gave the Strad to his daugher, Huguette, when she was a teenager.

Huguette became an eccentric recluse who owned extensive properties but spent the last few decades of her life in a hospital in New York.

After her death in 2011 at the age of 104, the rare violin was discovered in a closet – where it had sat gathering dust for decades.

The Kreutzer Stradivarius is being auctioned as part of Huguette Clark’s estate next month – and is expected to sell for up to ten million dollars.