£3.5m for a Mahler manuscript

The highest-estimated musical manuscript ever offered at auction will come up at Sotheby’s in London on November 29.

The complete manuscript of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony (The Resurrection) has an estimate of over £3.5 million.

It is written in the composer’s distinctive hand throughout, and spans 232 pages.

No complete symphony by Mahler written in his own hand has ever been offered at auction.

It is being auctioned by the estate of American businessman and economist Gilbert Kaplan (1941-2016) who became infatuated with the symphony after seeing it performed at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1965.

He dedicated his life to realising his dream of conducting the piece with the world’s greatest orchestras.