Julian Gargiulo, a concert pianist and composer who recently moved to New York after nearly a decade in Paris, is currently without his beloved Steinway grand piano—a piano he’s had since he was 14 years old. Known for his distinctive appearance, including a head of hair that could rival Howard Stern’s, Gargiulo is facing an unexpected challenge with his piano.
Before leaving Europe, Gargiulo arranged for a moving company to ship his prized instrument to the U.S. However, upon arrival at Port Newark, his piano was sent to a warehouse, where it has been stuck ever since. The issue? The piano’s ivory keys. The Fish and Wildlife Service informed Gargiulo that the piano could not be cleared through customs because the ivory on the keys violated the U.S. ban on importing ivory.
Gargiulo believes that while the agency is following the law, it is missing the spirit of the regulation. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that blocking a pianist from shipping his piano as part of his household move back to the United States is not what the ivory ban was ever intended for,” he said. The Fish and Wildlife Service declined to comment on specific cases.
In the meantime, Gargiulo has spent nearly $10,000 to cover the costs of storage fees for his piano, first in one warehouse, and later in another. Despite the financial strain, the emotional toll has been far greater. “I’m not made of money,” he remarked. “But the emotional toll has been massive.”
The situation has largely resulted from paperwork he wasn’t aware he needed until it was too late. Gargiulo had informed the moving company that the piano had ivory keys, which, in hindsight, he admits might not have been the best decision. “I could have not mentioned it or even had the ivory removed in Europe and carried it with me,” he said, though he admits that might have seemed suspicious.
A ban on ivory imports was put in place in 1989 by the United Nations, and a nearly complete ban on elephant ivory trade in the U.S. took effect in 2016 to combat the poaching crisis. To legally import a piano with ivory keys into the U.S., the owner must provide specific documentation about the type of elephant the ivory came from and the age of the ivory itself.
Gargiulo’s Steinway, made in Hamburg, Germany, predates the 1989 ban, as do many pianos from that era. According to Steinway, all pianos built at the company’s Hamburg plant before the ban featured ivory keys, as did many of the pianos made at the company’s Queens, New York, factory. However, the Fish and Wildlife Service requires that a valid instrument certificate accompany the import of musical instruments containing ivory, confirming the ivory was harvested before 1976.
Steinway was able to provide Gargiulo with a letter stating that the piano was built before the 1989 cutoff, but the official records from the time were unavailable. While this documentation has been sufficient in the past, it has not been enough to clear the piano through customs.
Gargiulo shared that his father had purchased the piano in 1987 when stationed in Italy as an Army officer, and that his mother had heard him compose a sonata called From the Window on it shortly before she passed away in 2020. Gargiulo expressed frustration that he is now being treated like an ivory poacher. “My parents certainly could never have imagined that one day I would be treated like an ivory poacher, trying to illegally import his piano into the country,” he said.
To resolve the situation, Gargiulo arranged for a Steinway technician to remove the ivory covering from the piano’s keys. The process took several hours and involved an official from the Fish and Wildlife Service overseeing the removal of each piece of ivory. The keys will eventually be replaced with plastic tops, adding to the growing costs of this ordeal.
For now, though, Gargiulo’s piano remains in the warehouse in New Jersey, unplayed—not because of the federal regulations, but because of the delayed renovation of his New York apartment. He now hopes to be able to move in by January, at which point, he will finally be able to play his piano once more.
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