MOSCOW - Gathering dust in an Estonian apartment and disintegrating by the day is an important piece of musical history, says the owner of a secret archive relating to composer Dmitry Shostakovich. The collection of 700,000 manuscripts and documents and 1,000 hours of concert recordings could shed new light on Shostakovich, regarded as one of the 20th century's greatest symphony composers.

But Mark Matsov, son of conductor Roman Matsov who worked closely with Shostakovich during the Soviet censorship years, fears it could be lost for ever. Struggling to pay the rent on the archive's home in Tallinn, Matsov, who lives in Moscow, says the collection is in danger of becoming homeless and could perish if not digitally recorded. Shostakovich had a complicated relationship with Stalinist Russia, with his scores sometimes being received favourably and at other times condemned. He died in 1975, and wrote 15 symphonies. Matsov, 61, is worried that now Estonia is a member of the European Union, the apartment's Soviet-era subsidised rent would be raised to market prices and he would be unable to pay. Some of the manuscripts de-tail how Shostakovich wanted his pieces to be performed, while tapes contain rare recordings of works banned at the time.

Last year, a group of leading Russian cultural figures signed an open letter testifying to the archive's significance, with some describing it as a "treasure". But experts say the true worth of the archive cannot be estimated until professionals have viewed the contents. An Estonian government official said Matsov had not approached authorities about his collection. The owner denied he was reluctant to show the collection to experts. Reuters