"It was spooky and I died tens of thousands of deaths". This is how musician Carolin Widmann describes her experience on a flight from Helsinki to Leipzig. At the Lufthansa check-in counter, she is not allowed to take her 244-year-old violin, violin case and bows onto the plane as hand luggage. She unpacks the valuable instrument made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini in 1782 and cradles it on her lap like a baby during the flight.
Putting the valuable violin under her sweater out of fear
The 49-year-old professor of violin at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music and Theatre in Leipzig is always afraid that the valuable instrument will be damaged and doesn't even dare go to the toilet. She sweats during the meal service and hides the instrument under her sweater. It would be a nightmare for her if tomato juice, red wine or mashed potatoes were to splash onto the violin or if turbulence were to occur during the flight.
The violin does not belong to her, but is provided to her by a London foundation. "The insurance company demands that I never let the violin out of my sight or into the hands of others. Especially not to throw it into the luggage compartment of an airplane like a normal suitcase," Widmann explains. According to her, the market value is two million euros, but as a cultural treasure it is priceless.
