GUEST: Today I brought in a manuscript, a musical manuscript, that was personally written by Giuseppe Verdi. It's an excerpt of his opera "La Traviata." And it was written on the 20th April of 1858 and signed by Giuseppe Verdi. A dedication probably to a friend.
APPRAISER: And how did you get it?
GUEST: I grew up in Vienna, and our neighbors were Austrian Jews, and they escaped to London, and they were very involved in the Jewish refugee community. A lot of Jewish refugees brought over valuable items that they could smuggle out of, uh, Nazi Germany. I've known the couple since I moved to Vienna in the 1960s. They became very close friends of ours. Over time, they gave my dad a couple of those pieces. My dad was a big Verdi fan. That was his favorite opera.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: So I guess that's why they gave it to him. Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER: Well, it's a terrific piece. In the manuscript world, we would call this an autograph musical quotation, signed.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So it's not the working manuscript, it's not the draft of Verdi.
GUEST: Sure, sure.
APPRAISER: But someone, a friend, a fan...
GUEST: Yeah, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...asks Verdi to give him a few bars...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...of, of a famous aria...
GUEST: Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER: ...from "Traviata," and he complied. What's nice about your example is that unlike the usual autographed musical quotation...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...which is only about three bars of music, this is 16 bars.
GUEST: Mm-hmm. Oh, really, yeah?
APPRAISER: This is really a full...
GUEST: Never counted it.
APPRAISER: ...a full musical phrase.
GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And it's signed and it's dated, as well. What's great about this is, it really helps explain what manuscript collectors are looking for.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Manuscript collectors want letters, documents, manuscripts from famous people, but they want those letters, documents, manuscripts to show the person doing what he does best.
GUEST: Sure.
APPRAISER: If you have something from a musician...
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: ...you want the musical quotation. You want to see the bars of music. And the more, the better. It has a few condition problems. This is probably some silverfish damage.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: So it might bear, uh, reframing it and, and perhaps treating it more archivally.
GUEST: Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah.
APPRAISER: So this full-page 16-bar...
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: ...musical quotation I would put at auction for $8,000 to $12,000.
GUEST: Oh, really? Yeah? Okay. (chuckling): That's very, very nice. Now I know for insurance purposes what to do.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm, if... If you were going to insure it...
GUEST: Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER: ...you could double it to $16,000...
GUEST: Yeah, sure, yeah.
APPRAISER: ...for insurance purposes.
GUEST: And then there, yeah... Okay, uh, but it's, uh, but it's definitely good to know.
