Technical article

Musicians Stopped at the Border: Rosewood, Ivory and Old Instruments

A passport, it seems, is not the same thing as the permit.

By Neil Solomon · 4 min read

Picture a cellist boarding a flight to Brussels with the violin her grandfather played. The bow has an ivory tip, and the old fingerboard may be rosewood. She has never thought of either as a customs matter. Can she fly with it?

The cases below suggest the answer turns on the materials, the paperwork and the officer on duty.

What happened to others

A string quartet from a US university landed in Brussels with instruments and bows that had ivory tips and inlay. Officers did not accept the instrument passports the players carried. The group was held for several hours while the wildlife-trade rules were checked. Permits were granted after a minister was contacted, and the players were released the same day. The Strad, a trade magazine, reported it. A passport, it seems, is not the same thing as the permit.

In 2014 a Canadian musician arrived at the main New York airport with eleven handmade bamboo flutes he had owned for years. Customs classed the untreated bamboo as an agricultural product, and the flutes were destroyed. That was a plant-health rule, not a wildlife one.

A Canadian music retailer shipped customers' guitars to the US for warranty repair. US Fish and Wildlife held guitars with abalone shell. The retailer was fined US$225 on one shipment, and the guitars were not released. Shipping a guitar for repair counts as an import and an export.

The largest case involved a company, not a traveler. In 2012 Gibson agreed to pay US$350,000 after a raid in 2009 over ebony and rosewood from Madagascar and India. The wood was worth about US$260,000. The government said it had been imported against those countries' laws. Gibson gave up the seized wood and set up a compliance program, and no one was prosecuted. These last three come from news and trade reports, tier U.

What the rules say

Rosewood needs its own line. Rosewood and three bubinga species were listed in 2017, with an exemption for non-commercial exports under 10 kilograms per shipment. That is a trade body's account. A later decision, effective 26 November 2019, exempts finished instruments, parts and accessories, except Brazilian rosewood, which stays under the strictest listing. That comes from a news report quoting the same trade body. The sources differ on dates, and an orchestra article written in 2018 says musicians still often put instruments in cargo because customs agents were not sure of the rules.

Voicing the doubt

You might say, "My violin is a hundred years old, so surely it is exempt." Age helps in some rules, for example the US antique exemption for ivory, which needs 100 years and a designated port. It does not help in all of them. The Brussels players had old instruments too.

Who this touches

An instrument often passes from a parent or grandparent. If it carries a papers trail, the family may hold the only copy. A child who inherits it inherits the question at the border too.

Doors you could open

You could look up which materials your instrument holds, in the bow as well as the body. You could ask the destination's wildlife office whether it wants a document, since a stricter country can ask for one even when the home country does not. You could keep a photo of the instrument and any old sales papers with it.

If you have flown with an old instrument, what did the officer ask for? Share it here, someone about to pack a case may benefit.

Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Date read: October 2026.