A rare violin worth US$172,000 that was mistakenly left onboard a Boston-to-Philadelphia bus by a groggy music student from Taiwan has been found and returned to its grateful owner.
Megabus USA director Bryony Chamberlain said on Friday that a cleaning crew recovered the instrument, which had been left in an overhead bin earlier this week. The New England Conservatory student got on a Megabus in Boston with the 176-year-old violin, but got off without it late on Tuesday, police said.
“It could have been quite a tragedy on Christmas, but in the end we were able to trace down the violin and [give] it back as soon as we could,” Chamberlain said.
The 19-year-old student, Hsieh Mu-chen (謝慕晨), told investigators that she left the instrument in an overhead bin and only realized she had forgotten it after she had been picked up. The violin was lent to her by the Chi Mei Culture Foundation in Taiwan to use while she studies in the US.
Hsieh said she initially called the bus company to see if the instrument had been found, but she was told it was not on board. Megabus offers low-cost express bus service to more than 70 cities in the US and Canada.
She also reported the loss to police, who later called the bus’ cleaning company, and eventually the rare instrument was returned. Hsieh was so happy she hugged detectives and played her violin during a police news conference on Friday afternoon.
Police lieutenant John Walker said people always hope for Christmas miracles around this time of year.
“In this case,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “we got one.”
Chi Mei Culture Foundation’s Chi Mei Museum in Tainan is not only known for its large collection of exquisite violins, but also for its generosity in lending them for free to Taiwanese prodigies, sources said.
Of the 468 world-class violins that Chi Mei Corp (奇美實業) founder Hsu Wen-long (許文龍) has collected from around the world, a number of them are on loan to young virtuosos studying abroad.
“A fine violin tends to fetch NT$3 million [US$99,108] or even NT$4 million, an amount beyond the reach of the average family, so the museum, with Hsu’s support, has been lending its violins to local musicians,” Chung Tai-ting (鍾岱廷), an adviser to the museum, was previously quoted as saying.
The museum does not charge the borrowers, although they must pay an insurance premium of about NT$12,000 a year.
Additional reporting by staff writer
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
RSS