New photos: luthier Shlomo Moyal begins work on viol destroyed on Alitalia flight

When Myrna Herzog made the fateful decision earlier this month to allow her viola da gamba to be placed in the hold of the Alitalia flight from Rio de Janeiro, it is unlikely that she could have imagined a worse case scenario than what transpired on arrival in Tel Aviv.

The severely damaged instrument is now with Jerusalem based luthier Shlomo Moyal, who has posted the above photos on social media, along with the following comments:

‘Musicians find themselves in impossible situations, traveling with their precious instruments.

‘Myrna’s instrument was brought to my workshop in pieces, the GEWA hardcase was seriously damaged during a flight from Brazil to Israel. 

‘I find it inconceivable that airlines around our world can orchestrate complicated schedules, accommodate the “wants” and “needs” of different people, can not come up with a system to transport musical instruments, that are the livelihood of musicians and in many cases are pieces of instrument-making history.

‘For me it will be a long interesting journey to restore this instrument, and i will do my very best for Myrna, an inspiring woman that is a true lover of music and history, both combined in this beautiful Edward Lewis bass viol from c.1661\2.’