'Sotheby's to auction Mozart letter to Mason'

    
If your lodge has a spare $400,000 laying around, you might cause your trustees to cast their eyes to Sotheby's, which will auction a letter signed by Bro. W.A. Mozart in which he seeks financial assistance from a brother Freemason.

Described by Sotheby's:

Mozart, right, in lodge.

Autograph letter signed "W.A. Mozart" to Michael Puchberg, June 1788. A frank and revealing appeal by Mozart for financial assistance, in which he discusses his famous string quintets in C major and G minor and the piano trio in E major, K.542.

Estimate: 200,000-300,000 GBP

It is the auction institution's May Musical Manuscripts sale, 29 documents in all, including a Mozart fugue not listed in Köchel(!), and a corrected music exercise by pupil Thomas Attwood. These papers are among the highlights on exhibit in New York City through Friday. The gavel of the auction will sound in London May 29.

For more information, contact the auction house's specialists in London.