Beethoven Manuscript Saved From Nazis Returned To Rightful Owners

After being rescued from Nazis, an original Beethoven music manuscript will be given back to its proper owners.

To prevent Nazis from stealing it, the object is being stored at the Moravian Museum’s archives in Brno, Czech Republic. The original owners, the Petscheks family, were once the wealthiest family in pre-World War II Czechoslovakia and they emigrated from the country to avoid the Holocaust.

The museum has had the fourth movement of the string quartet in B-flat major, op. 130 for more than 80 years. The highly valued manuscript was displayed for the first time by Moravian Museum curators for five days before it was given back to the Petschek family.

It’s unknown how the Beethoven manuscript ended up in the Petschek family after World War 1. In addition to the Petschek family, Beethoven awarded at least two more private owners headquartered in Vienna the 4th movement before he passed away in 1827. He presented it to his secretary Karl Holz. Attempts were made by the Petschek family to send the manuscript abroad in 1939, when Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Nazis.

When a specialist from the Moravian Land Museum was contacted to confirm the signature’s validity, he identified it as an actual Beethoven original. He and others, however, claimed the artifact wasn’t real in order to hide it from the Nazis.

In an interview with EuroNews, curator Simona Sindlarova further explains, “The item itself has a wonderful collecting past. “The entire narrative reflects the last 200 years of Central European history.”

The six-movement quartet was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1825–1826 as a part of his work on a number of late quartets. The Russian Prince Nicholas Galitzin commissioned these works, and the Musikverein in Vienna had their world debut in March 1826.

“Without a doubt, the Petscheks are the rightful owners. What will happen next is the issue at hand. The intriguing narrative of this collector has a fresh chapter, the curator Sindlarova continues.

Beethoven Manuscript Saved From Nazis Returned To Rightful Owners

After being rescued from Nazis, an original Beethoven music manuscript will be given back to its proper owners.

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