Quite a lot, it turns out.
While you have to feel sorry for the festival organisers, there’s something uniquely satisfying about watching the professionals screw it up. 
Just read about that in the Times. Whilst feeling awfully sorry for the organisers I have to agree with your last statement 
Presumably they can claim back the cost of the piano? Possibly even the inflated £50k for the replacement…
So much for advertising: http://www.gandrremovals.co.uk/
Yes, there was a series of three photos in the paper, with the firm’s logo and contact details prominently visible on the truck. I fear that in this case “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” will not apply. :dubious:
Oh, I also feel it’s obligatory to post a link to these song lyrics… 
How sad for them all. However, the lesson here (or at least one lesson) is to insure for the replacement value. I wonder how much they saved on the premium by insuring for the lesser amount?
It does have the benefit of increasing exposure of the festival. I’m willing to bet that a number of people will contribute money to the group and however the settlement with the movers turns out, they will be money ahead.
There is only one thing that can be said at a time like this (to the moving company) “Will that be cash or check?”
It was in my morning paper here in Toronto. The article said that the value worked out to $100,000 Canadian… much more impressive. 
And the movers’ phone number was visible as well.
[tangent]
My all-time favorite specialist movers’ name:
Deathwish Piano Movers
(Notice the, ah, contours of the logo’s skull?)
I operated a moving van for about 10 years. Judging from that pic I don’t think these guys were very experienced. When moving a grand style piano it’s SOP to use a piano board. The piano is completely wrapped in moving pads and the piano board is placed along the straight side, then an appliance dolly is placed under the board. The whole thing it strapped tightly to the dolly. This adds stability, since the dolly wheels are wider than the piano. With a larger piano you have on person on the dolly and one on each side of the piano, just to prevent it from tipping sideways, which appears to be what happened.
I’d say negligence, the company sent inexperienced men.
Or chimps? One of the comments was “Reminds me of the the old PG tips commercials with the chimps trying to bring the piano down a set of steps…”
Laurel & Hardy did a hilarious short on moving a piano, but it was an upright, w/ emphasis in the “was”.
The house, that they were moving the piano into, was on a hill w/ a long set of concrete steps leading up to it. You can use your imagination from there. 
And their incredibly distressed faces. Poor guys–poorer piano. winces, goes off to play own piano
Da, do you know the piana’s on ma foot?
you hum it son, an I’ll play it
Priceless
Si
What a drag. Too, too bad.
“But… that’s a priceless Steinway!” - Grand dame, appalled
“Not any more!” - Insp. Clouseau, with satisfaction
The Music Box even won an Oscar.
Twenty-five years ago, I did a few jobs for a fly-by-night removals firm called Tiger Trucks based in Kilburn (north-west London). One of the jobs involved moving a grand piano from a 2nd floor flat in Willesden to a first floor flat in Wembley. None of the 3 of us (me, my mate Trefor and his dad, Ifor, the driver) had ever so much as manhandled a grand piano in our lives but we managed to manoeuvre it down two flights of stairs (it was a bugger getting it round the corner), into the van and then repeated the process at the other end without so much as scratching the instrument.
Clearly the chaps who mangled this piano were eejits, pure and simple - never mind “experts”.
Bloody 'eck. My back aches just thinking of that! :eek:
Don’t worry, guys, they’re not saying boo, they’re saying mooooooovers.
In his autobiography, Paul Bowles talks about living in Tangiers and taking composition lessons from Aaron Copeland. The place Bowles is living in doesn’t have a piano, so he’s got to find one and have it delivered. The only one he can find is an upright that’s barely able to stay in tune. So he hires some locals to deliver it to his place, telling them to be careful with it. When the movers show up at Bowles’s place, he and Copeland are standing outside. Bowles writes that the movers simply shove the piano out the back of the truck and it hits the ground with a thoroughly wonderful and utterly unreproducable sound. Neither he nor Copeland were able to properly tune the piano after that.
I’m not sure that that’s relevant here. It was purchased at auction so by definition the replacement value is the value paid at the auction.