Italian Government crashes Sotheby’s Verdi auction
mainA last minute intervention by Rome stopped the auction of a cache of Verdi manuscripts and letters at Sotheby’s London yesterday. The Italians agreed to pay £358,000 to make the documents, privately owned in America for half a century, available for scholarly and public perusal.
The Italians will also pay Sotheby’s commission.
Could anyone tell us off hand what manuscripts were being sold? Thanks. Dan
They were primarily autograph letters, including 36 (some of them never published) to Salvadore Cammarano (librettist of Il trovatore among others.) There was a page manuscript of a scene from Ernani, but I don’t know if that was part of what the Italian government bought.