My Business Law professor was telling us about this case that he lost and no longer knows how to find. He talks about it in the text book he wrote.
"In the classical case of the sale of a Stradivarius violin, the parties agreed to buy and sell a violin for a nominal amount of money. Later it is discovered that the violin was no ordinary violin, but a Stradivarius Violin worth millions of dollars. The seller sues to recover the Stradivarius violin, arguing that it was a mutual mistake of fact.
The holding of the case was that they were not mistaken of the fact. They both knew that they were buying and selling a particular violin and that the court does not decide the value of an item. Hence, the contract could not be rescinded and someone became very rich…
In researching, I came across the court case that the first 2 posters mention, but me being an apparent idiot, I went by the information posted in the question and wasted a good 20 minutes of my time. Thank you.
BTW, if the info is in the book your law prof wrote, why not just get the book??
An excellent resource for your violin lessons need.