Beethoven score sells for record prize in Paris

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

Beethoven’s unpublished manuscript has been sold for a record prize of 252,750 euros at auction.

An unpublished Beethoven manuscript sold for 252,750 euros at auction in Paris, part of a major collection put together over 50 years by the late French-born banker Andre Meyer.

A signed string quartet manuscript by Arnold Schoenberg went for almost as much, 240,750 euros, a record for the Austrian composer who died in 1951, according to Sotheby’s auction house.

Another record by Bach

Another world record was made with the sale for 228,750 euros for a first edition printed score of Johann Sebastian Bach’s six Partitas for keyboard.

In total the lots of manuscripts, prints and works of art from Meyer’s collection, including “the most important collection of musical prints in Europe”, according to Sotheby’s, went for 3.3 million euros.

The Beethoven exercises and drafts, which had been estimated to fetch 100,000-150,000 euros, were first bought by the collector Aloys Fuchs at auction after Ludwig van Beethoven died in 1827 and later given to Polish composer Frederic Chopin.