I'm loaning a violin to my son, who may be using it for some of his gigs. I have got it covered under my own contents insurance for this purpose, but it seems that it isn't covered for theft unless by forced entry or violent means. So if someone walked off with it after a gig (easy enough to do, as you can't watch all your equipment at once) it presumably wouldn't be covered. I will check on this with the insurance company, but just wondered if anyone had any tips for this kind of situation?

It's a very distinctive violin, but even so I'm wondering about some kind of postcode marking. Is it okay to do this with a violin, or would it reduce its value? It's worth about ?3k, so I want to make sure it's safe.

I would really appreciate any advice. Many thanks!

Get it insured separately, with specialist musical instrument insurance. Allianz are the main players in this field. You can expect to pay around ?5 per month, giving worldwide cover including theft from vehicles.

Not only will it give you peace of mind, they're also far more understanding if a repair is needed: regular household insurers might force you to get the repair done by whoever quotes the lowest price, whereas many of the better violin repairers are able to invoice Allianz directly.

My daughter's flute is now insured with Allianz. It's worth more than your violin, but the premium is surprisingly low. It's covered if left in a car, or green room and under other circumstances in which instruments can find themselves. They also sent us a tube of smartwater with which to mark it as our property. You can also add on other instruments if needed.

I've had excellent service from Newmoon Musical Insurance. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

Thank you so much - I hadn't realised the premium would be so low. It cost more than that to get it covered for gigs on the household insurance, so it sounds as though changing could be a wise move.

Bassoonista, please can you tell me what smartwater is?

Ditto

You can find out about Smartwater here. It's a colourless liquid with a unique chemical code which is registered to you. Some people don't like the idea of using it to mark instruments because (a) it leaves a slight shiny mark and (b) in order for the code to be checked, a sample has to be taken by scraping

I am having a nightmare in Gib - there is no dedicated musical instrument insurance that I can find. My household insurance want ?150 to add it at 3K eur value, and it is worth more, which I can't afford....AND it won't cover me for professional use, which is no good when I am teaching and being paid to play with the band! I really don't know what to do, but need to insure before I travel to UK next month with it. Any suggestions?

Have you tried the UK insurers to see if they'll cover you?

I've looked online and they all want a UK address. I think I'll have to ring them to double check.

I was going to post you a company name but I can't find it
I was insured with what I thought was a French company offering specific musical instrument insurance when I initially took the insurance out but they were actually Swiss. They offered insurance for people all over Europe. I did wonder if Gibraltar is "Europe" but if it's not "UK" it must be something. The insurance covered taking the instrument outside your country of residence anywhere within Europe (but you had to pay extra if you wanted "the rest of the world"). If I can find something they sent me with their name I'll post it but you might be able to find them on Google.

I never made a claim from them so I can't tell you if they were good or bad but the premiums weren't excessively high. I swapped to a different French company a couple of years ago because they had a better coverage for when you accidentally damage the instrument yourself; at the time I had just bought a 3 000 Euro cello for my daughter and decided that there was very little risk of it being stolen and it was far more likely that she would drop it, or bang it or that another child might accidentally kick it.

That would be really useful if you could possibly find it. I've googled and haven't found anything. Gibraltar is in the EEA. Most people think of it as Spain...but we don't have the ID number that you need for Spanish companies!

To state the very obvious suggestion, what does your teacher do about insurance?

My teacher lives in spain - so he has a choice of insurers...

OK, It's official, I LOVE guivier's shop....he's just put me in touch with Lark insurers that will insure me in Gib!! ?75 - including bow and possibly my digital piano!! I am one happy person this morning and said an insurance valuation would only be ?50 too