A MUSIC professor in Texas, the United States, has been forced to sleep with his 330-year-old violin to keep it warm, for fear it will crack in cold weather.

Aaron Boyd, who is the director of chamber music at Southern Methodist University, bundled the instrument up in blankets before snuggling with it after the power went out at his Plano home amid a winter storm earlier last week.

“I treat this violin as if it were a living creature,” Boyd told The Dallas Morning News on Friday.

Temperatures inside Boyd’s home dropped down into the 40s (between 4 and 9 degrees Celsius) Tuesday, so he has been sleeping next to the violin for the past three nights.

“Once it’s cracked, you have to have it fixed — and it’s never quite the same afterwards,” Boyd stated.

The violin was made by renowned luthier Matteo Goffriller in Venice back in 1690.

Boyd — a violinist who has played in concert halls across the world — discovered the instrument in a music store a decade ago. The item was so precious that the store’s owner had kept it locked in a safe.

While Boyd did not reveal how much he paid for the instrument, another Matteo Goffriller violin was sold at Christie’s auction house for US$265,000 back in 2008.

Back in 2016, another Matteo Goffriller violin was stolen from a train carriage in London, sparking a frantic search. That instrument was valued at US$235,000.

Boyd said he placed the violin between himself and his 5-year-old son, hoping that their body warmth — in addition to the bundle of blankets — would keep it nice and warm.

While power has returned to Plano, Boyd is not yet ready to stop snuggling with the violin.

“I think if we have a couple of days of secure power, regular heat, I will feel comfortable putting him back in his own room,” he stated.(SD-Agencies)