Steinway from Europe

[Fred S. Sturm]

We have a new piano professor here at the University of New Mexico, who 
came from Heidelberg. He left his Hamburg B behind, in part because of 
the costs he was quoted in regard to shipping and preparation. He got 
these quotes from the Steinway factory, so they are quite high. He was 
told it would cost from $10,000 to $12,000 to crate and ship. In 
addition, since it has an ivory keyboard, and such items are forbidden 
by US customs, he was quoted some $2000 to replace the ivory with 
plastic.
	Now, my sense is that these costs could be reduced considerably, but I 
wonder if any of you have actual knowledge and experience in such 
matters. For instance, I presume outfits like Propiano are moving 
Hamburg Steinways to the US on a regular basis, and could possibly be 
persuaded to add a private instrument to a shipment. And I expect that a 
brand new keyboard could be ordered from Kluge, and the ivory one sold, 
quite possibly at a profit (depending on the work required to fit the 
new keyboard to the action, which I expect would be not be too 
considerable). 
	I can fairly easily look into the keyboard problem, but does anyone 
know about possibilities for secure shipping of a Steinway grand from 
Europe? Thanks in advance for any info.

Fred Sturm, RPT
University of New Mexico