A British couple's dream of unveiling a valuable concert grand piano at their annual music festival came crashing down before them Tuesday.
John and Penny Adie, organizers of the Two Moors Festival, watched in horror as movers dropped the Bosendorfer piano they'd spent two years raising the funds to buy.
It was to have been the centrepiece of the festival celebrated in the southwest county of Devon this spring.
A specialist crew from moving company G R was unloading the Austrian-made instrument — which is valued at £45,000 (close to $102,000 Cdn) — when it toppled over.
At a length of nearly three metres, the instrument is larger and longer than most concert grand pianos. Its tail end had caught on the truck and it fell about 2.
5 metres down an embankment before crash landing, upside-down, on a bank of stone steps.
Penny Adie had been photographing every step, hoping to record the moment for posterity.
In interviews with the British press, she called the Bosendorfer — a favourite of top pianists worldwide — the "Rolls Royce" of pianos and likened the brand to violins created by Italian maestro Antonio Stradivari.
After being reloaded onto the moving truck with the help of a local farmer and his mechanical digger, what remains of the piano has been returned to London, where the couple had bought it at an auction earlier this year.
Insurance officials are evaluating the case. However, the Adies said the piano was only insured for £26,000 (about $59,000 Cdn) — the bargain price they had scored at auction — rather than the piano's estimated value of £45,000.
Experts estimate that a new Bosendorfer would cost approximately £90,000 (about $203,000 Cdn).
The moving company had no comment about the incident.
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