When a musician was told by airline staff that he couldn’t take his priceless violin on board as hand luggage, he decided there was only one option – travel by bus.

Polish festival director Janusz Wawrowski was travelling from Vilnius in Lithuania to Warsaw when crew from budget airline LOT told him the Stradivarius would have to be checked into the hold, despite conforming with the airline’s 8kg carry-on baggage limit.

The musician was adamant that the near 350-year-old $5million violin was travelling with him, but the airline staff in Lithuania were just as determined.

After being told he could try another airline, the violinist, who had just performed at the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, decided to cut his losses and bought a seat on a bus service to Konin in Poland, an eight-hour trip that cost around €55 and allowed him to keep his beloved violin close by.

“This is not the first time we musicians have had to face the incomprehension of airline attendants about what a valuable item we are dealing with,” the musician wrote on Facebook. “An instrument is not just a tool. It is an extension of the musician’s body, and we spend hundreds, if not thousands, of hours with it.”

Wawrowski later confirmed that the Polish airline had been in touch to apologise, saying it would work with musicians and its staff to update its rules on carrying instruments on board.