Stolen Goffriller Cello Returned to French Cellist

The instrument, which is valued at €1.3 million, was stolen for the second time in September 2024

The French cellist Ophélie Gaillard, whose €1.3 million eighteenth-century cello was stolen from her home in the Haute-Savoie region of France in September 2024, has been reunited with the instrument.

French police arrested three burglars in the Annecy region who were already known to the authorities. They had been targeting Gaillard's house, but it is not clear whether they knew the value of the instrument.

This occasion was not the first time that Gaillard's cello has been stolen: in 2018, the Guardian reported that she had been robbed at knifepoint outside her home in Paris. After reporting the theft, Gaillard received an anonymous call prompting her to retrieve the instrument from a car parked outside her house.

Gaillard appears regularly as a soloist throughout Europe and Asia and has played with orchestras including the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Metz National Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.

She has taught as a professor at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève since 2014 and regularly serves on the jury of major international competitions, including the ARD Competition (Munich), Concours de Genève, Cello Biennale d'Amsterdam, and Isang Yun Competition (Korea).

"The cello and bows are in perfect condition and will be able to resonate and vibrate again," Gaillard said. "For the moment, I can breathe again, my family is reassured, and now I hope to be able to devote myself to my passion again."

"I would like to thank each and every one of you who relayed the information and supported me through this ordeal. I would also like to thank the press and media who played a crucial role in this outcome. But I would also like to particularly thank the police and salute their constant commitment and efficiency."

"Everyone knows about [the theft], even in Japan," Gaillard told Le Parisien, summing up the difficulty that thieves would have encountered trying to sell the instrument. "A work of art like that cannot be resold!"