Mozart's Autograph Letter Sold for 660 Million Won at Auction

Letter to a French Sheet Music Publisher in 1783
Proposal for Publishing the 'Haydn String Quartets' Collection

A handwritten letter by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756?1791), the 'musical prodigy' composer, was sold at an online auction for 440,000 euros (660 million won).

Foreign media, including the German dpa news agency, reported on the 6th (local time), citing the announcement by the auction house 'International Autograph Auctions Europe' ('IAA Europe') located in Malaga, southern Spain. The buyer of Mozart's letter is known to be a private collector in Europe.

A handwritten letter from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756?1791) sent in April 1783 to a French music score publisher. International Autograph Auctions Europe website, Yonhap News Agency

The starting price for the auction of this letter was 100,000 euros (150 million won), but the final bid price rose sharply. The auction house also reported that there was high interest from the United States and Asia. The letter was sent by Mozart in April 1783 to Jean-Georges Sieber (1738?1822), a German-born French music publisher, and was written in German. The original letter was known to have been lost for some time but was later discovered in a family archive.

The letter contains Mozart's proposal to Sieber to sell works such as three piano concertos and six string quartets for publication as sheet music. The six string quartets mentioned here are presumed to be the first reference to Mozart's famous 'Haydn Quartets.' Mozart's 'Haydn Quartets' are a collection of six string quartets published in Vienna in 1785 as 'Opus 10,' corresponding to string quartets Nos. 14 to 19 in modern numbering. The name 'Haydn Quartets' was given because Mozart dedicated these pieces to his respected musical predecessor Joseph Haydn (1732?1809).

Before these works were published, in January and February 1785, Haydn attended two gatherings at Mozart's home where he listened to all the pieces and praised Mozart's father, Leopold. Haydn said, "I swear to God, and as an honest man, your son (Mozart) is the greatest composer I know, among those I know personally and those I know only by name." This praise from Haydn was recorded in a letter Leopold Mozart sent to his daughter Nannerl in February 1785 and has been passed down through generations.

The letter auctioned this time was written before Mozart completed composing the 'Haydn Quartets.' At that time, Mozart was in contact with Sieber to explore the possibility of sheet music publication, but it did not lead to publication. The actual publication of these pieces took place two years after the letter was written, in September 1785, by the Viennese music publisher Artaria.

Mozart Statue. Pixabay

Meanwhile, items related to Mozart are known to fetch high prices at auctions. In 2007, a handwritten score page of the 'Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major' composed by Mozart at age 23 was sold at Sotheby's auction in London for 119,000 pounds (about 226 million won at the time). This score had not been made available to the public or scholars for research for decades before the auction. The auction price was the highest ever for a Mozart autograph manuscript.

Also, in 2019, a portrait depicting Mozart at age 13 was offered at a Christie's auction. The portrait shows Mozart wearing a white wig and a red frock coat, playing the harpsichord. Painted by Italian artist Giambettino Cignaroli, the work was sold for 4 million euros (about 5.196 billion won), far exceeding the pre-auction estimated price of 800,000 to 1.2 million euros.