Beethoven Auction Report December 1996 - December 1997

Beginning of article

Sotheby's, London

December 5-6,1996; May 16, December 5, 1997

Stargardt, Berlin

March 18-19, November 25-26,1997

Hotel Drouot, Paris

April 25, 28, 30, 1997

Christie's, London

October 9, 1997

I BEGIN HERE WITH THE SALE OF DECEMBER 5, 1996 AT Sotheby's in London because lot 241 was a portrait of Friedrich Schiller. The association with Beethoven is merited by the influence Schiller exerted on Beethoven's creativity, particularly his lifelong ambition to set Schiller's ode "To Joy" to music. Beethoven extracted from this drinking song the stanzas which appealed to his nobler instincts and immortalized them in the final movement …