Fire in Norwegian musical instrument museum
A fire that broke out for as yet unexplained reasons has destroyed parts of the collection of the Ringve Musical Instrument Museum in Trondheim, Norway. Historic keyboard instruments are particularly affected.
According to the museum, two historical pianos fell victim to the fire, a square piano and a grand piano from the 19th century. Other objects were severely damaged in some cases.
Ringve is the central institution for music and musical instruments in Norway and the only specialized museum in this field in the country. It was founded in 1952.
Today, the museum's collection comprises almost 2000 musical instruments from all over the world. Ringve is also responsible for several hundred instruments deposited with it by other museums and private individuals, including historical piano instruments, classical stringed instruments and parts of the ethnographic collection.
The collection of piano instruments includes an unsigned Italian virginal from around 1600, a spinet from around 1700, a large selection of clavichords from the 18th century, a harpsichord by Jacob Kirkman from 1867, a fortepiano signed by J. A. Stein in 1783 and by Congrad Graf in 1826 as well as a piano harp by Chr. Dietz from 1870.
