The handwritten lyrics of Jacques Brel's song Amsterdam has fetched about $170,000 at an auction in Paris.
The text was part of a large-scale sale at Sotheby’s Paris on Wednesday of records, old photographs, guitars and other items from a private collection.
The lyrics of the song — considered one of the most melancholic by the late Belgian performer — were scribbled on a school notebook.
Brel's widow and three daughters had opposed the sale of the collection. The items were recovered from the home Brel shared with one of his mistresses, Sylvie Riget.
The contents were given to her nieces and nephews after Riget's death.
Brel's widow and daughters had offered $277,000 for the entire collection.
They had managed to block a sale of the merchandise back in 2003 by claiming that the memorabilia could not be sold separately from the copyright to his work, which they own.
However, that same argument failed to impress the courts this time.
"It's odious and mean," said France Brel, one of the singer's daughters. "We have tried all kinds of ways to stop the sale."
More than 200 people attended the auction, which took place 30 years after Brel died of lung cancer on Oct. 9, 1978.
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