An award-winning French musician was robbed at knifepoint of her 18th-century cello, worth more than €1m, outside her home in a Paris suburb on Thursday evening.
The soloist Ophélie Gaillard told police her attacker also forced her to hand over her mobile phone before fleeing on foot in the north-eastern suburb of Pantin.
“Help! My cello was stolen this evening in a red dark flightcase,” Gaillard wrote in a Facebook post, accompanied by pictures of the instrument.
She said the cello, which was loaned to her by CIC bank and is valued at nearly €1.3m (£1.15m), was made by Francesco Goffriller, son of Venetian master cello-maker .
The case also contained her bow, which she said was the work of acclaimed 19th-century French bowmaker Jean Pierre Marie Persoit.
In 2003, Gaillard was named the best new instrumental soloist at the French classical music awards.