17th-century viola emerged from an Alitalia flight ‘savagely vandalized’
A distressed musician has published shocking pictures of her 17th-century instrument emerging on an airport luggage carousel ‘savagely vandalized’.
Brazilian-born Myrna Herzog has posted pictures of her viola da gamba on Facebook, showing that it has been severely damaged, with one half of the front ripped off, despite being in a hard case with a ‘fragile’ sticker displayed, dailymail.co.uk reported.
The viola da gamba is one of the world’s rarest musical instruments and one made in 1708 sold at auction for $212,000 (£156,000).
The 66-year-old, who has performed with notable ensembles around the world, didn’t say at which airport the damage had occurred, but claimed that Alitalia was responsible.
She wrote: “Alitalia hates musicians! This is how Alitalia delivered my original 17th-century Lewis viola da gamba, after ensuring to me that it would be taken by hand into the plane and out of it.
“It was savagely vandalized and it seems that a car ran over it.
“So far no luck in contacting any human being at Alitalia.”
Herzog said that she tried to pay for a seat for the cello-like instrument, but was told that it would have to go in the hold as the plane was ‘super full’.
The musician added that she has previously stowed the instrument in the hold without any problems.
Her Facebook post has received hundreds of comments and been shared over 30,000 times.
Lucy Robinson, who works at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, wrote: “Shameful! Dear Myrna I am so sorry.”