Beethoven Manuscript Discovered At Palmer Theological Seminary Sold For $1.72 Million
The autograph manuscript of one of Ludwig Van Beethoven's most revolutionary works, recently discovered among missionary artifacts at Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University, was sold for $1.72 million to an anonymous buyer on Thursday at Sotheby's in London.
Considered a major find by music scholars, the Grosse Fuge in B flat major for piano four-hands (Op. 134), one of the composer's last works, is one of Beethoven's few compositions for piano duet. The manuscript was discovered among archival materials by Circulation Supervisor Heather Carbo last July and authenticated by Dr. Jeffrey Kallberg, a musicologist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Stephen Roe, Head of Sotheby's Manuscript Department.
"We are pleased and delighted that the manuscript sold," said Palmer Seminary President Dr. Wallace Charles Smith in a public announcement released on Thursday. "It will further the Seminary's mission by reducing debt, improving our endowment, and helping to fund a creative program at Eastern University to provide Associate's degrees for urban young people."
After it appeared in an 1890 auction catalogue, the working manuscript – which contains new material for one of the composers' most forward-looking works – was lost to twentieth-century Beethoven scholars. According to Palmer Theological Seminary, the manuscript was probably bought by philanthropist and hymnologist William Howard Doane at that time and later donated to the Seminary by his daughter, Marguerite Treat Doane.
“Although it may have been displayed once after it was donated in 1950, it disappeared until it was discovered among the Seminary archives by Ms. Carbo,” the seminary reported.
This is the second time that rare musical manuscripts have been found at Palmer (formerly Eastern Baptist) Theological Seminary. In 1990, a University accountant discovered original music manuscripts by Mozart, Haydn, Meyerbeer and Spohr in a Seminary safe. These manuscripts were also sold at Sotheby's, where they yielded proceeds of $1,576,000.
