But the exemplary collection of Amatis, Stradivaris and Guarneris that Vermillion acquired in the 1980s made the museum a natural for a Cremona show-and-tell.
No one could be better at such a show-and-tell than Mr. Francesconi, 59, the venerable hall's first and only archivist and director of its Rose Museum.
They have plenty of large SUVs that don't get great mileage, but they've used the Prius, their Highlander and their Lexus RX-400H hybrids to kind of show a halo effect and tell people to ignore the big trucks, you know, they don't have as many of those, according to advertising.