After ‘priceless’ violin flies on lap, Lufthansa changes carry-on rules

Lufthansa Group will introduce “a new, more generous” carry-on policy for small instruments. Read more at straitstimes.com.

German violinist Carolin Widmann played a concerto in Finland in November 2025 and set off for a quick trip home before a performance in Vienna. But at the airport in Helsinki, she was faced with a conundrum: what to do with her centuries-old violin.

As she tried to board a Lufthansa flight, an airline employee said her violin case was too long to fit in the cabin. Despite her protests, the only option for transporting the multi-million-dollar instrument was to remove it, buy a second seat on the flight to Frankfurt and hold it on a connecting flight to Leipzig, her home town.

Widmann had to protect the instrument – a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin made in Turin, Italy, in 1782 – from the risk of spills, jostling passengers and turbulence in multiple planes, as well as through security checks and bus transfers in the ice and snow.

“I took off my sweater and wrapped the sweater around my violin,” the 49-year-old said in an interview. “Completely unprotected, this incredibly valuable instrument.”

She could not leave it unattended to use the restroom.

“This is more than an instrument,” she said. “It is cultural heritage. It is like having a van Gogh painting, bare in your hands.”