The great Austrian composer’s manuscript yields much more than expected. A letter from John Lennon to a well-known fellow musician from 1971 remains a slow seller.
Rum raisin.
A handwritten letter by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) from 1783 has been sold at an online auction to a private European bidder for 440,000 euros. The auction house International Autograph Auctions Europa, based in Málaga, southern Spain, announced on Friday that the starting price of 100,000 euros for the great Austrian composer’s manuscript has been substantially exceeded. There has also been a lot of interest from the US and Asia.
However, an eight-page handwritten letter from John Lennon to his fellow musician Eric Clapton from 1971 with the proposal to form a new “super band” did not find a buyer: there was interest, but in the end there was no enough for a bid, a spokesperson for the auction house said. The letter had a starting price of between 80,000 and 100,000 euros.
The letter to the editor was considered lost
the auction house claims to be Europe’s leading auctioneer for manuscripts, autograph letters, signed photographs and other historical documents and was founded in 2011. Mozart’s letter to the German-born French publisher Jean-Georges was thought to have Sieber had been lost,as the auction house writes.
But then it was found in a family archive. In it Mozart provides insights into his thoughts - but, according to scientists, also the first clues to his famous Haydn string quartet. Also offers Sieber compositions for sale. (dpa)