A piano virtuoso is mourning the loss of her "best friend" after movers dropped her grand piano, the BBC reports.

Canadian Angela Hewitt is acclaimed as one of the world's leading classical pianists.

All of her European recordings since 2003 were performed on her Fazioli F278 concert grand piano, which was the only one in the world to have four pedals.

She says two weeks ago movers came into her recording studio to tell her they had "dropped" it.

The piano was kept at her home in Italy, and pianopricepoint.com estimates it is worth over $200,000 (£155,000).

Her use of the piano is noted on the Fazioli website.

"The iron frame is broken, as well as much else in the structure and action (not to mention the lid and other parts of the case)," she wrote on Facebook. "It's kaput."

She says she is now dealing with her insurance, and hopes to travel to Sacile, Italy, where Faziolis are made to pick a new one in the next few months.

This is not the first piano-moving disaster. In 2007, a concert grand piano worth £45,000 fell out of a lorry.