A bizarre situation took place on February 5 at the airport in Vilnius. The violinist Janusz Wawrowski performed the day before with the orchestra of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic at an evening of Polish-Lithuanian music. He played the Stradivarius “Polonia” violin, which was made in 1685 and was purchased for Poland in 2018 for five million euros, which translates to about PLN 20 million. Wawrowski flew with them from the Polish capital and had a return plane ticket. Troubles began at check-in.
LOT did not let a passenger with a violin worth millions
LOT staff did not allow Wawrowski to bring valuable and antique violins on board the plane and ordered him to return them to the luggage hold. The passenger was told that he would either agree to such transport or stay in Vilnius.
“Without showing any understanding for the value of the violin. The lady from LOT said that ‘we’ll see if they break down in the hatch’ (literally). They also did not accept my explanation that I have been traveling with a violin for many years on various airlines and, that I flew to Vilnius with the same airlines. In hundreds of previous flights, I was never forbidden to take a violin on a plane, “Wawrowski reports in his entry.
“The argument was that ‘no, because no’. When I asked if I could buy an additional seat, I was told that there was no such possibility because there were too many tickets sold for this plane,” he added in an interview with
He also emphasized that everything took place in a very unpleasant atmosphere. “They tore off all the stickers from my suitcase, they measured my time: 5 minutes left, 2 minutes left. The gentleman from PLL LOT was not aware of the regulations, he did not say about the size, about the size of the case” – he continued. Finally, he returned from Vilnius by coach – the journey took eight hours.
It should also be added that LOT’s regulations state that passengers may take on board one piece of hand luggage weighing up to eight kg and “total dimensions not exceeding 118 cm”. In addition, you can also take a so-called personal item weighing up to two kg, e.g. a laptop bag. The violinist weighed and measured the case – with the instrument it weighs less than six kg and measures exactly 118 cm.
“It would also seem obvious that a violin that is almost 340 years old is too valuable to travel in the luggage hold. Apparently not for everyone” – writes Wawrowski.
PPL LOT was asked for comment by both RMF FM radio and the following reply was sent:
As LOT Polish Airlines, we constantly cooperate with many orchestras and philharmonics and help them transport various instruments. In this particular case, an inexperienced employee of the handling company servicing PLL LOT made the wrong decision based on the fact that the violin case did not fit in the so-called luggage rule.
We are extremely sorry about the situation. We will refund the unused part of the ticket and we will make every effort to prevent such situations from happening in the future.
Stradivarius “Polonia”, which was purchased by Roman Ziemian and Stephan Morgenstern, was created in the year of birth of Johann Sebastian Bach. The authenticity of the instrument is confirmed by numerous certificates, and thorough examination of the instrument has shown that all its parts are original. The copy, which was purchased in 2018 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining independence, is one of the best preserved Stradivarius in the world. For years, they belonged to private owners and only one concert was performed on them a year – the valuable instrument is now stored at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
Source: Gazeta
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