This also gives us an excuse to post a snippet of one of the finest Lohengrins recorded. Any excuse - we know.
A handwritten letter from the German composer Richard Wagner, dated in 1881 and sent by the musician to the editor of the newspaper El Periódico Ilustrado Español, fetched more than 3,000 at the auction in La Suite on the 24th October. The letter had a reserve price of 1,200 Euros, and was one of more than 300 lots which La Suite put on sale yesterday and which included gothic, baroque and renaissance carvings, sculptures in bronze and porcelain, Spanish Golden Age pieces, paintings and drawings by Salvador Dalí, as well as various collectors´ items.
Work by Salvador Dalí (Ed: oddly enough it was only last year that Dali's once thought lost "Mad Tristan" was once again presented to the public. See here) is a classic in La Suite’s auctions, and all five drawings by the artist that were on sale went under the hammer; the most outstanding of these was the rare and little known "La Nuit de France" drawn on the cover of the menu of a charity dinner on the liner "France", to celebrate "La Nuit de France" hosted by John F. Kennedy (1962); with a reserve price of 2,500 Euros, it was finally purchased at a price of 7,900.
