UK: A manuscript by Ludwig van Beethoven lost for more than a century has been sold at auction in London for £1.13 million (€1.65m) to an anonymous buyer.The record price for a Beethoven manuscript of £2.13 million was set by his Ninth Symphony in 2003.
Discovered in July at the bottom of a filing cabinet in a religious school in Philadelphia, the 80-page manuscript sold yesterday is a work in progress for the Grosse Fuge in B flat major - one of Beethoven's most revolutionary works.
Not only is the document a working manuscript for the only piano version of a major work by Beethoven, it is one of his few compositions for a piano duet. It is notoriously difficult to perform and, because it was musically far ahead of its time, did not immediately sit well with audiences.
The manuscript includes annotations in pencil and red crayon.