“Help!” »: musician Ophélie Gaillard launches an appeal after the theft of her cello estimated at 1.3 million euros

She calls for help. In a message shared on Wednesday on her Facebook and Instagram accounts, musician Ophélie Gaillard announced that she had her cello and her two bows stolen from her home in Haute-Savoie, during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.

“HELP!” HELP!!!!!!!!! My cello Francesco Goffriller (1737) and my personal bows Nicolas Maire and Jean-Marie Persoit were stolen from my home last night in their dark red flightcase,” wrote the soloist as an SOS. A message translated into English and accompanied by photos of the instruments allowing them to be recognized.

A previous flight

The cello does not belong to him since it is a collector’s instrument, “on loan from the CIC bank for almost 20 years, valued at 1.3 million euros”, indicates a press release from the label Aside transmitted to franceinfo. “In addition to being odious, it is madness to steal this type of instrument. It’s unsellable. These rare instruments are identified and traced as works of art, and therefore easily identifiable,” continues the musician to our colleagues, specifying that an investigation has been opened and entrusted to the gendarmerie.

This is not the first time that Ophélie Gaillard has been robbed. In 2018, threatened by a knife in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis), she had the same instrument stolen. She then published a message on Facebook, which proved successful since the cello was found the next day. “I received an anonymous call late in the morning telling me that my cello was outside my house in a car. I found him in the back seat,” she said.