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Subscribe to RSSA rare violin worth $172,000 left onboard a Boston-to-Philadelphia bus Tuesday night has been found, much to the relief of the music student who forgot it in the overhead compartment.
Muchen Hsieh, who was borrowing the violin while she studied at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music, noticed she didn't have it after getting picked up by the family hosting her visit to the Philadelphia area.
She called Megabus, the low-cost bus company that had transported her, but was told the instrument - made in Naples in 1835 by Vincenzo Jorio - hadn't been found.
She told CBS Philadelphia the violin was insured, but irreplaceable.
“I’m a violin major so I really hope that the person that took it can give it back to me so I can continue my studies because right now, I can’t do anything,” she told the station, which described her as "fatigued."
The violin had last been seen on a Megabus on Tuesday at 29th and Market Street in Philadelphia. Philadelphia police started a search and told the public it could be returned to one of their stations with no questions asked.
Hsieh told investigators that she left the instrument in an overhead bin. The violin was loaned to her by the Chi Mei Culture Foundation in her native Taiwan while she studies in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Megabus was desperately searching for the valuable piece of lost luggage, which hadn't actually been stolen, but had just been moved off of the bus to a holding area in one of Megabus's facilities.
"She contacted us about a half hour after she got off, but by then, [the bus] had moved on. We couldn't trace down the luggage immediately," Megabus USA director Bryony Chamberlain told msnbc.com on Friday. "It was found by our cleaners yesterday. I'm very relieved. We're very lucky."
It was a particularly fortunate find during the holidays when travel is up, Chamberlain said.
"We carried about 22,000 people [nationwide] yesterday. People will leave luggage behind while going to see their loved ones, so we do whatever can - it shows our procedures worked correctly."
As of Friday morning, the violin had been picked up from Megabus by the police and was on its way to Hsieh, who could not immediately be reached by msnbc.com for comment.
While Chamberlain said Megabus is "very pleased" with the find, she said the tale serves as a lesson for travelers.
"It's an awfully high value to put into the luggage compartment," she said. "We do recommend if you have expensive items, take them with you to your seat."
The instrument bears the original label of its maker, Vincenco Jorio 1835 Vi CM Post #9901.
The Associated Press and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.
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Let me strongly suggest that Megabus USA director Bryony Chamberlain takes over the job as Postmaster General for the USPS.
Muchen Hsieh is a full blown idiot and should play with a drum!
I'm certain this Taiwanese girl feels bad enough already that she made a mistake. She doesn't need your criticism. Direct your vitriol elsewhere, troll.
Now Mr. Cool....who would wish such misery on anyone this time of year...
Free pass kid. Merry Christmas.
In Taiwan, theft isn't as common as here, and the people there are more relaxed and less vigilant. So I'm very happy that the violin was recovered.
Happy Holidays To All Who Feel Joy At Good Things Happening and Being Done.
Why would anyone borrow something that valuable? Furthermore, why would anyone loan it?
@floyd - what's a musical intrument worth if it's not used? If it's not used, it just becomes another piece of furnature collecting dust.
I'd have had that violin case handcuffed to my wrist. ;-)
Floyd - truly talented musicians borrowing a fine instrument like this is normal because talented musicians typically can't afford an instrument worthy of their abilities. So wealthy benefactors make sure that instruments like this are available to be played by those who can really do them justice. That way the music sounds as wonderful as possible and that makes everyone happy.
Also my heart goes out to the artist who left it on the bus. It is hard to imagine carrying around something so valuable all the time but it does become somewhat routine after a while and she is young. It is easy to make a mistake like this the first time. I doubt she will ever make such a mistake again now that she has experienced the anguish of it.
Especially for some of the greatest musicians - some of them (not all but some) may tend to live in another world and lose track of things in every day life. Genius sometimes takes a toll on the practical side of life. If they are distracted keep in mind for some - that may be the very thing that allows their gift to so overwhelm the rest of us with amazement and emotion when they perform.
Case in point - I once knew a talented violist who was finishing her masters at UNT at the time - and one day she drove me around town to run some errands - but only once. She ran every red light we came to and was oblivious that she was doing it. She was a genius on her viola but distracted about the other things going on around her. I sought other forms of transportation.
Glad they found it. I cannot image not taking an item that was loaned to me and irreplaceable and putting it in with other people's luggage, though.
Obviously not a person that I would entrust with such a valuable instrument. Where on earth does she keep her brain ?
In the overhead bin?
She is a musician so the creative side of her brain is overly dominant to her logic side :)
I agree with Trueblue. The endowment should cancelled her handling of the violin. If they don't, the insurance company should double or triple the endowments insurance fees.
An item that valuable, that is moved around constantly with no security, is probably not insurable. The owners are just risking it.
someone born w/ silver spoon has no concept of the value of what she had,hope the paople who lent it to her learned a lesson
As just how is it you know she was born with a silver spoon?
I was going to ask that too. I looked through several articles and none of them gives any indication. Jb, you do know that certain organizations do lend these instruments to exceptional musicians regardless of background right?
Mitchell
jb obviously posted without even reading the article!
How did you even come to the conclusion that she was born with a silver spoon?
1. She had no instriment of her own and had to borrow one.
2. She was traveling by bus!!
3. Her destination was staying with a "hosting-family"
Are these signs of wealth?
She might not came from a millionaire family; but her family certainly is above the middle class (relatively speaking) in order to afford for her music lessons early in life.
Could be a scholarship, perhaps she has a sponsor, you don't know.
Mitchell
Exactly. Knowing the value of something is different than REALLY KNOWING the value of something. I made the same mistake once. I loaned my Les Paul to a freind that left it in a practice area. The next day it was gone. It never should have left his side. I won't do that again. A shame, for both of us.
When you are traveling on a low fare bus line, where does the silver spoon come in? She apparently possesses remarkable talent, but little money or sense of responsibility yet.
I have known plenty of poor people who knew music and played. It is one thing you can take with you when you haven't much else to carry. If anyone thinks all musicians are rich I'd ask them to hang out with some musicians for a while.
As for loaning an expensive piece of equipment to someone, how does the president of Ford motors handle a NASCAR race? Do they get a person who is a good driver and pick them to drive or do they drive the car themselves?
Finally, can economic arguments be left out and people just appreciate the music? Seriously...
None of the race cars belong to Ford or any other manufacturer - they belong to the car owners. The owners hire a driver.
jb = jealous bastard?
Why would you give an almost 200 year old, $172k violin to a music student to practice with anyway? Shouldn't something like that be in a museum or perhaps only taken out for special performances or something like that?
Because the 200 year old cellos weren't available?
Probably not....but the 40 year old tamborine was....and it is green.
Putting the violin in a museum would "kill" it. To retain its sound quality, it must be played. That is why I get angry when some buys/sells a Strad and it either disappears or gets displayed.
Most of these older instruments are owned by foundations or people who can afford to buy them, then they are loaned to people who often have to audition for the privilage of playing it.
For a good movie about the life and times of an 18th century violin visit "The Red Violin" by Francois Gerard staring Samuel Jackson as the twentieth century art historian. It suggests that many an instrument shared misbegotten adventures that visited our student from Taiwan.
I own the movie "The Red Violin" and there is a book that I read a while ago that is pretty close to the plot line of the the movie. The title escapes me for the moment.
I have played the violin for 40 years, but not anywhere near good enough to play professionally. I think some people would have a better understanding that these instruments are not just things if they would see the movie, or actually pick up an instrument and give it a try.
A violin that is only taken out for special performances would not create any magic. The violinist must live with it, practice on it for several hours a day, and learn how to use it to bring out the best in the instrument and the musician.
The best violinists can probably determine the temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure by how their violin is performing today. They know it far better than they know their spouses (probably spend more time with the violin, also.)
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My guess is she'll have to return the violin IMMEDIATELY and in exchange, she'll get a really nice, BRAND NEW ONE that she can play and practice on til her heart's content! That's what I would do regarding this situation. She's proven she has no real regard for the value of this prized antique!
I would like to see the training and guidelines that the owners gave this young girl when they loaned the instrument. She is young and probably inexperienced in security issues. If they did not give her any guidance, a serious caution and a strong training class would be the best way to handle it.
She might be a musical genius, and this instrument may be what she needs to develop her gift. For an instrument this valuable, maybe a security guard is the way to go.
Having it in the overhead bin was probably thought of as a safer place than having it on her lap, where other people were knocking it as they shuffled by, or the other passengers were invading her space. Fat people cram seats and aisles in buses, too.
I used to travel by bus, and having your stuff on your lap (I had my college books so I could study) wasn't all that wonderful--they'd end up on the floor more often than not.
good job megabus inc. you should start an airline.
It seems a little lame to put a violin priced at almost $200,000 out of your sight.
I agree--the woman is an idiot. So many of these musicians that are blessed to be loaned these extraordinary instruments--leave them on buses, on trains, in cabs, in restaurants, etc. Pitiful! She should not have been given it back. There are a million others who would die to have an instrument of that quality--just for a day--let alone to have for a long time. She just can't be that stupid, so she must be spoiled and thoughtless. The average person would not forget a purse with $10 in it, let alone a mega-grand violin!
@Bezoar: Wow, so full of judgments, aren't we? How cruel you are. The Taiwanese student is a just a girl; you have absolutely no knowledge of her or her situation other than what is in the article. It's not even your violin. Shame on you. Instead of criticizing others, maybe you need to get a life of your own, somehow.
Sounds like a situation for a 6 foot leash. Something in silver, maybe. Too bad it's such a vertical market.
You have to love the way people on this blog toss around names like idiot and moron and sometimes ones that are unprintable at ordinary folks who make ordinary mistakes. You are all so damned brilliant yet you have nothing better to do with your day but write misspelled, grammar-free comments to, and about, people and things of which you have no knowledge whatsoever.
Go take a night class or two. Remedial English, perhaps, or join some sort of debate club. I'll guarantee you it's a lot more satisfying to slit your opponent's throat with the knife of intellegence that it is to bludgeon him with the blunt object of ignorance.
I would really like to hear her play. Got ya. "That" should be "than" in your last sentence LMAO
scottyusa - Oops, a humbling moment. I proof read that twice, too. Hate it when that happens.
Ease up folks, this isn't the first time this has happened. And sometimes to the great ones. In 1999, Yo-Yo Ma, possibly the greatest cellist who has ever lived, put a $2.5 million dollar cello in a yellow cab trunk in NY after playing at Carnegie Hall, and forgot it when he exited the cab. NYPD, working with New York's mayor, rescued it. The NY Times account of its return to Ma's hotel:
"Outside, the growing crowd was worthy of a Presidential motorcade. A horde of reporters, police officers, hotel security staff and gawking passers-by jammed 55th Street, with cars spilling into the intersection of Fifth Avenue.
''Who's coming?'' asked one woman, rolling down the window of her white Mercedes.
''The cello,'' someone in the crowd yelled back.
But it was his.
Lucky for him it was too big to fit in an overhead bin.
We need more stories about sax and violins.
here, here!
TWMLLR, good one, well done!!
Okay, stupid question, but...what kind of IDIOT leaves a $172K violin on a plane????
They don't,.........
They leave it on a BUS!!!!
I found new violins on line starting at $99.00. That would seem more appropriate considering her level of responsibility.
do you know that a $127,000.00 violin does not sound any different than a $200 dollar violin. The only difference is the price and the dork playing it.
Tone deaf.
There is 200 year old junk and 200 year old masterpieces. The sound is quite different.
You have either never played a violin, or have never listened to someone play a fine violin. Different wood and different lacquer have major effects on the sound. You should really do a internet search before you pretend to be an expert at something.
You are very wrong. You must not be musically inclined. You do not know what you are talking about.
PIck me, I heard that an extremely cold period in Europe caused the trees to grow differently, making the wood more dense which is why Strat's are so much better. Any truth? Hope you check back in.
Had she been flying, the instrument would have vanished into the black hole of lost luggage.
Wus this? Whut kind weapon iz this? I'm ohn haffa conficate this fum you. Take off yo' clothes.
You brainless twit!!! How can you be so irresponsible with someone else's property. You should be made to change musical instruments, to start playing the tuba for the rest of her idiot life to make it harder not to forget what you're carrying with you!!!. Sheeeshhh!!!!
Your freaking brain is what is replaceable . Improve it with a dead rat's brain!!! ... and you should seriously think about getting sterilized while you're at it.
Angry much, dude?
We should take her out back and shoot her in the head. That'll teach her, wont it?
I hope you're sterilized. We certainly do not need more people like you on earth - getting so twisted about a girl who made a mistake.
Obviously you've never been an exhausted, stressed-out, music major college student... with your attitude and anger I'm guessing you barely made it through preschool. Lighten up and please do not reproduce.
Maybe she should take up the Tuba. Hard to misplace those. And, they don't fit in the overhead baggage compartment.
Two thoughts at the same time. WOW. So....Tuba it is!!!
I am so glad that I am not the only one that leaves my $172,000 violin in an overhead bin of a bus. One time I forgot where I parked my Rolls at Walmart parking lot.
that violin case should have had handcuffs attached to her wrist as a part of her agreement to be transported.kinda like the blues brothers briefcase.she wouldn't have forgot it then.i don't want to make assumptions why she forgot it but i have to say that was pretty careless of her.could you imagine if a homeless person found it and tossed into the 55 gallon burn barrel for kindling!
Very interesting story with a happy ending. I'm sure the insurance company employees have changed their underwear by now. The girl has learned a lesson. The bus company should be running our country instead of the idiots in Washington. Everyone breathe.
Stuff happens. I have a friend who left his old Martin 12 string guitar behind his car after he had packed his luggage in the trunk. You guessed it...backed over the instrument and made a very expensive pile of vintage toothpicks.