A burglar stole a $250k cello. But its value could actually make this 'art heist' a bust

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he weight of the grief Sarah Rommel carried into Boston’s Carriage House Violins Tuesday morning felt much heavier than that of the 134-year-old cello she’d lugged around since 2022. The Seattle-based chamber musician was on a reluctant quest to find a loaner instrument for an upcoming performance with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston.

Nine days prior, a brazen burglar had left shock and heartache in the place of Rommel's prized 1890 Enrico Marchetti cello, valued at approximately $250,000.

“It's hard to communicate the gravity of this kind of loss to people who don't really have a relationship with a thing as opposed to a person,” Rommel told KUOW. “But it’s like losing a loved one.”

The thief also left behind a wrench on the front lawn of her home in Seattle’s Central District, used to smash a window and gain entry while Rommel was away traveling. In addition to the cello, they took two bows — one worth roughly $20,000 — along with several cameras, camera lenses, and a backpack containing other valuables.

But it’s what the burglar didn’t take — “an almost identical bow case with a much cheaper bow, around $4,500” — that suggests the break-in wasn’t random, Rommel said.

“There are these elements that make [me] and who we've spoken to about this feel like it was targeted,” she said.

Retired FBI agent and art crimes investigator Robert Wittman agrees with that assessment.

“There is somebody who knows her [and] knows what that instrument is,” said Wittman, who’s not involved in the burglary investigation. “It's not a haphazard burglary.”

Rommel said that as far as she knows, only a small number of people in her social circle were privy to the cello’s value. The Seattle Police Department hasn’t publicly identified any suspects.

“The first people I would talk to would be all the people who would know her, know about [the cello] and then talk to their families and branch out from there,” Wittman said.

While the thief may have slipped away from the scene of the burglary, attempting to sell such a uniquely identifiable instrument could be pressing their luck.

“When you have a piece that’s that valuable and that old, people in the industry who would be interested in buying it would know what kind of piece this is,” Wittman said. “And they'd also be able to find out that that was the one that was stolen.”

Trying to sell the instrument at a pawn shop probably wouldn’t go over well either, Wittman said.

“If you walk into a pawn shop trying to sell a cello, you might get $100 or $200,” he said. “It's not like jewelry, where you can pop [out] the stones or melt the gold. It's got to be kept in good shape and it's got to be identified as what it is. And then you’ve got to offer it to somebody who knows exactly what they're buying.”

Additionally, flying with such a large and fragile instrument could draw unwanted attention. Airlines generally require the purchase of a plane seat in order to safely stow a cello in the cabin.

For her part, Rommel notified the Port of Seattle police and local luthiers, warning them that her stolen instrument could be coming their way.

“We probably had a message in every violin maker or luthier’s inbox from Vancouver, BC to Portland to notify them about this,” Rommel said.

In the meantime, the show must go on.

At Carriage House Violins on Tuesday, Rommel tried out many bows and cellos, but just couldn’t connect with any of them, she said.

“Today was one of the more difficult days for me in terms of processing the shock and grief of not having my instrument, and potentially losing it forever,” Rommel said. “[Trying out instruments] would normally be an exciting and fun thing. But I really didn't want to be there. I didn't think anything would compare to my Marchetti cello.”