An award-winning French musician was robbed of her cello worth more than $1 million outside her home in a Paris suburb.

Ophelie Gaillard wrote a Facebook post asking for anyone with information about her missing 18th century cello to come forward.

The 43-year-old soloist wrote in a post with pictures of her lost instrument: 'Help! My cello was stolen this evening in a red dark flightcase.

Ophelie Gaillard wrote a Facebook post asking for anyone with information about her missing 18th century cello to come forward

'Please be aware and forward quickly and largely!!! I do not have any cell for now (stolen too) thanks to contact on FB or on my mail.'

She told the police the attacker made her hand over her mobile phone before fleeing on foot in the northeastern suburb of Pantin.

In her post, she wrote that the cello was loaned to her by CIC bank and is valued at nearly 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million).

It was made by Italian luthier Francesco Goffriller, son of Venetian master cello-maker Matteo Goffriller, in 1737.

She also owns an 1855 Bernardel cello, which she uses for romantic and modern music.

Her Facebook post said that it was loaned to her by CIC bank and is valued at nearly 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million)

She added that the cello case which was stolen also contained a bow, which was made by the 19th-century French bowmaker Jean Pierre Marie Persoit.

In 2003, Gaillard was named the best new instrumental soloist at the French classical music awards.

Gaillard was born in Paris and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, where she gained three first prizes in music: one in chamber music in the class of Maurice Bourgue, one in cello in the class of Philippe Muller, and one in baroque cello in the class of Christophe Coin.

Since gaining a Certificate of Aptitude, she has been teaching the cello since 2000.