Mysteriously Beached Piano Makes Splash in Miami

MIAMI Jan. 25, 2011— -- The grand piano floats like a mirage over Miami's Biscayne Bay, a testament to music and haut pranksterism.

Miami's mystery piano was parked on Biscayne Bay sometime before last week when locals spotted it and called in the strange sighting, Jorge Bino of Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told ABC News.

The 650-pound grand piano stands upright, perfectly placed on the highest point of the sandbar, just a couple hundred yards from a row of condominiums. It's doubtful the abandoned instrument is still in tune, but that hasn't stopped the seagulls who use it as a perch from occasionally stumbling through a few notes.

"We have no idea exactly when it got there," Bino said. "Our agency cannot move it unless it becomes a navigational hazard. At this point it's high enough on the sandbar so that it is not a navigational hazard. So I guess it will stay."

The Coast Guard also says it has no intention to remove it.

So it stays. And the rumors swirl.

Perhaps it was a perfectly timed publicity stunt? The New World Symphony, a Miami Beach-based conservatory is opening its new Frank Gehry-designed campus today.

The symphony's spokesman Craig Hall chuckled at the insinuation, but insisted the conservatory's fellows couldn't possibly have had the time to pull off the prank.

"I am sure that they're pretty busy. The fellows are preparing for the start of our opening week," he said.

Miami's New Times pays homage to the string instrument in it's "Top Ten Reasons Why There's a Piano on a Biscayne Bay Sandbar."

Number 4: "The piano is a leftover prop from a Kanye West video filming. (I'm on a boat! With a piano!)"

Another that has appealed to some children is number 7: "The Little Mermaid was not a work of fiction and the musically inclined lobsters and crabs dragged the piano out themselves."

Twitter is ablaze with pictures and calls for the mystery artist -- think Banksy -- to come forward. The New Times trumpeted that the piano placer should be on its list of "100 Creatives."

Mystery Piano on Biscayne Bay

A grand piano's can cost upwards of $4,000. But wear and tear and the cost of rebuilding them can significantly reduce their value. Then, again, you can't put a price on art.