(CNN) An extremely rare, $194,000 grand piano was smashed when movers dropped it while taking it out of a recording studio, Canadian virtuoso Angela Hewitt has revealed.

Hewitt, one of the world's leading classical pianists, said in a Facebook post that she had just finished recording Beethoven's piano variations in Berlin when the movers entered the studio control room to tell her they had dropped her handmade Fazioli piano.

The pianist said it had taken her 10 days to share the "very sad piece of news" because it "has been such a shock to me that I didn't immediately want to share it with the world."

Her precious F278 Fazioli piano was the only one in the world with four pedals, she wrote.

"I adored this piano. It was my best friend, best companion. I loved how it felt when I was recording -- giving me the possibility to do anything I wanted," she said.

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