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Hi Everyone,

This is probably not what the particular Bösendorfer piano owner was hoping for!

http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2013/08/08/contents-claim-solved-the-case-of-the-priceless-pi


M.

I hope he didn't pay priceless for the piano. Still, even if it's not "vintage" if you enjoy the sound of a piano, and enjoy playing it, that's what counts the most!

Judging from the description, this is exactly what the Meyer and SAP rebuilds are today.

To tell an insurance company that something is "priceless" is utterly meaningless. It cannot put that value on it.

This is a sad story, though, no matter how you look at it. I hope that there was some recourse against the entity that sold the buyer this piano or rebuild job.

Yes, nothing is priceless. However, a "restored" piano can mean many things. The technology used either honors the original design and what the piano was meant to be - or casts it by the wayside. Changes are either thought out carefully as to how they will effect an instrument over time, or they are made to save money and sell the piano.

Additionally, most dealers that sell a piano like this one do not even know what they are selling. Many are as naive as their buyers, in my experience.

Also priceless: "glaring inaccurisms"

New Bosendorfers have particle board lids. Maybe the rebuilt one sourced a new lid from Bosendorfer?. The article also didn't define the qualifications of the person or people who inspected the piano for the claim.

This whole thing brings to mind the scene from the "Pink Panther" movie where Inspector C return home after a long absence to be attacked by his sidekick. They proceed to destroy the elegantly appointed apartment including a "priceless Steinway grand". Closeau retorts "not anymore" to the "priceless" claim.

I would not presume that the buyer was duped. He may have bought a "restored" piano, and then let his imagination get ahead of the facts. If the seller did indeed make false statements in writing about the piano, there is potential recourse. Alternatively, the buyer may have bought a reasonably priced and clearly described restoration and then rubbed his proverbial hands together thinking he had just made a killing -- only to find out that it was just another restoration and not a "pristine" vintage rarity. In that case, his disappointment is his own issue.

Wow. "It did not require provenance, research, or connoisseurship of Bosendofer pianos". It's strange to read an open admittance by this company that their final value decision was based not on provenance or research, but on complete piano value ignorance. Amazing and insightful.

How sad for the owner of the destroyed piano.

I expect there is a LOT more to this story.

Generally a priceless piece of art or building going through restoration requires extremely rigorous levels of faithfulness. Experts and scientists from the field are brought in to make sure that everything used and done is exactly to the period. That means they re-produce the paints and laquer of the period using period materials and methods. They use wood from that era of same quality. True restoration to a priceless status in the art world bare a cost many times the price of a new one, possibly even hundreds of times more. Generally this level of rigor are apply to something truly priceless that could be afforded by only governments, institutions, museums, and the like.

I think the piano would have to be originally made by Boesendorfer himself and own by a famous pianist like Liszt to qualify. Even so, the cost of restoration is so prohibitive that nobody would bother. Where do you find 19th century steel? You have to manufacture that at what cost? If you think I'm talking crazy, just think about the millions it cost to clean the Mona Liza, or the insanity in cost of restoring the Parthenon in Greece. Though even that's not as obscene as the $6.4 billion in rebuilding the Oakland span of the Bay Bridge for earthquake safety, but I digress.

A bridge is used by millions a year and supports the commerce ($396 Billion) that directly impacts each Bay Area resident's livelihood. A piano is at best a fine musical instrument and at worst a piece of neglected furniture. The two are orthogonal. Some of us need that bridge to make enough pennies to buy a piano.

It's obscene because the span replacement was supposed to cost "only" $800 million. Before construction even started, the cost had doubled to $1.6 billion, and then quadrupled again to $6.4 billion by the time it opened last week, over eight times the initial cost estimate!

So the span was $5.6 billion over budget. Since this is a piano forum, put the overrun in perspective, $5.6 billion is enough to buy every single person living in San Francisco proper (city & county) a brand new Yamaha U1. Tax, delivery and first tuning included.

Is bench included???

Don't forget the over-stressed brittle pins!

Forgive my bias, how about a Walter 190 for every single head in Walnut Creek, all inclusive, including leather-top adjustable bench and lesson cost for a year!

Now I must leave to cross the bridge...

Me too! I can't even imagine what the toll will be next year....

No the bench is separate and attached to a high speed rail car somewhere near Bakersfield. You thought the bridge was expensive...

So I did some calculations.

The cost of providing a Jansen bench, to every San Francisco resident, is $528 million. Yes, more than half-a-billion dollars!

People! I give you free pianos, brand new, delivered, tax-free, and now you want benches?!! This is how we get into cost overruns!!!

How about a free tuning?

:sob:

You know, back to the original topic, maybe the owner of that Bösendorfer wasn't the one who purchased or restored it. Perhaps the piano has been in the family for a number of years, was inherited, etc. Maybe that's why it was "priceless" to the owner.