Marriage in a hurry: Christie's auctions Mozart letter

Why was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart so anxious to get married?

On 6 July, Christie's auction house in London will be selling a letter from the summer of 1782 in which Mozart, then 26, explains to his close friend Baroness von Waldstätten why he had to marry Constanze Weber within two days.

Over two pages, Mozart explains that he had to save his future wife from a scandal. At the time the letter was written, it was known that Constanze was living under the same roof as Mozart, prompting her mother Cäcilia Weber to call the police to get her daughter out of Mozart's house in order to save her reputation. The auction house expects the autograph to fetch up to €570,000.

"Mozart letters are rare at auction and there are few other historical figures from whom one can gain such an unfiltered insight into such an important and private moment," enthused Thomas Venning of Christie's. The letter had always been in private collections and had not been seen by the public or scholars since 1989, according to a press release. The letter itself does not have an exact date. However, the couple were married on 4 August 1782.