French cellist issues plea after rare €1.3 million cello is stolen in home burglary
30 September 2024, 11:26
Ophélie Gaillard’s 300-year-old cello was stolen from her home along with two precious bows.
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French cellist Ophélie Gaillard has put out an appeal to find her stolen cello, a rare instrument worth an estimated €1.3 million.
Dating back to 1737, it was crafted by Francesco Goffriller, one of the master luthiers of the Venetian school.
The cello was stolen from her home in a dark red case which also held two cello bows by Nicolas Maire and Jean-Marie Persoit, along with cash and iPads, in a burglary on the night of 24 September.
Gaillard told FranceInfo: “Thieves came overnight between 03:00 and 05:00 when we were sleeping. The children are safe and sound, which is the main thing.”
But the theft of the cello, she added, “is a horror, it is a catastrophe”.
This isn’t the first time Gaillard’s cello has been stolen. In 2018, a man in the street threatened her with a knife before making off with the instrument. It was found two days later after an anonymous caller told Ms Gaillard it was in a car just outside her house.
Read more: Esther Abrami refused boarding with 200-year-old violin on Ryanair flight
Bach: Prélude, Cello suite Nr.1 | Ophélie Gaillard
After putting out an appeal to find the cello, Gaillard told press it “has nothing to do with its commercial value”. She said: “It is as though I have lost a limb.”
She has had the instrument on loan from CIC bank “for more than 20 years”.
“As well as being hateful, it is mad to steal this kind of instrument,” Gaillard added. “It is not sellable. This type of rare instrument is identifiable and traced like works of art, so is easily spotted.”
When instruments by Stradivardi, Gaillard and other leading violin makers are stolen, they often cannot be sold on because they are too valuable, and too easily traced back to the owner.
Musicians including fellow French cellist Gautier Capuçon have been sharing her appeal, in an attempt to track down the stolen cello. “How awful – I’ve shared” [translated from French],” Capuçon commented on her Instagram post.
Ophélie Gaillard won third prize in the International Johanna Sebastian Bach Competition in 1998, and is a great champion of solo cello repertoire including the Bach Cello Suites – a recording of her playing the first suite has had nearly seven million views on YouTube.
