Ptashne says he decided to make the purchase after consulting Menuhin himself.

"I remembered from Menuhin's biography that he had been associated with this violin so I called Menuhin, and he said it was the greatest violin in the world," Ptashne says. "I sold everything and bought it."

The D'Egville was one of a famous historical pair of twin Guarnieri violins, Ptashne says.

"One of the famous books by the Hill brothers describes [a collector named] Plowden who had these two violins together in 1850," Ptashne says. "A French violin maker named Vuillaume came by and said you will never see two such beautiful Guarnieris," he says. "So they are a famous historical pair that were apart for 100 years."

By an amazing coincidence, Ptashne succeeded in uniting the pair by acquiring the second violin.

"I finally got the violin of my dreams, the Plowden which is another [Guarnieri violin made by] Del Jesu in 1735," Ptashne says. "I was in Sweden giving a lecture and an English dealer and friend of mine called and said that if I flew in to New York City that night I could see the twin of the D'Egville," he says. "I flew there and now they're back together."

Ptashne says he loans his other violins to help young aspiring players.

"I have one violin called a Rocca that's being played by a concert player in New York and I have [another viola] called a Pressenda that's being played in the Borromeo quartet."

Art Enthusiast

In addition to playing the violin. Ptashne is an avid collector of various paintings and sculptures produced by such artists as Matisse, Hoffman and Lachaise.

Ptashne modestly describes his impressive collection of paintings and sculptures as "restricted to things that emotionally move me a lot."

Ptashne says he was particularly moved by the story of 20th-century German painter Hans Hoffman, who taught many prominent modern artists at his Rhode Island school. Although he was a key figure in the modern art movement, Hoffman did not paint many of his well-known pictures until he was 80 years old, Ptashne says.

"[Hoffman's canvases] struck me as being the most moving, unbelievable things," Ptashne says. "As I live with those pictures, they continuously amaze me."

Lambda: More Than a Greek Letter

Despite his profound interest in the arts, Ptashne is still most well-known for his contribution in the field of gene regulation.