Ludwig van Beethoven's original manuscript for the scherzo movement of the string quartet in E flat sold for more than Ј1 million ($A2.73 million) at auction early today

Ludwig van Beethoven's original manuscript for the scherzo movement of the string quartet in E flat sold for more than Ј1 million ($A2.73 million) at auction early today. Sotheby's said a private buyer, bidding by telephone and declining to be identified, paid Ј1,181,600 for the work. The auctioneer said single pages written by Beethoven appear fairly often at auction, but that no manuscript of this size had been offered for more than a decade. The manuscript was sold on behalf of the Stiftelsen Musikkulterens Framjaende in Stockholm, Sweden.