Christie's in London will be selling a substantial number of works collected by Alice and Nikolaus Harnoncourt next month, offering a fascinating insight in to their artistic interests and instincts.

The acclaimed conductor Nikolaus died in 2016, while his violinist wife and co-founder of Concentus Musicus Wien Alice died last year, and collecting had remained a shared passion throughout their 63 years of marriage.

Items owned by the couple at their house near Salzburg include fine and decorative European art from across five centuries, Old Master paintings, early European furniture and sculpture, and ceramics. Notable provenances include the Rothschild family, pianist Alfred Cortot, Yves Saint Laurent and JP Morgan.

They include a fragment oil on canvas by Veronese, an oil sketch by Rubens, a lavishly illuminated, iconographically unusual Book of Hours by the Master of Martainville 183, a 14th or 15th century wooden crucifix, and a first edition of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Elisabeth von Magnus, the daughter of Alice and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, said: 'My parents bought works that inspired them and that they wanted to live with. They were never just collectors. They only bought art that they found important and fascinating, as well as with the music they engaged with – it was worth studying and discovering again and again'.

Benedict Winter, Head of Sale, added: 'Alice and Nikolaus Harnoncourt's...unwavering commitment to music and art underpinned their collecting and desire for artistic perfection. The works being offered for sale provide the public with a rare glimpse into their private world.'

Alice & Nikolaus Harnoncourt – Artists Collecting Art, an online sale of 50 select works, is open for bidding between June 30 and July 14; a group of Old Master pictures and illuminated manuscripts will be also be offered from their collection in the Old Masters Part I Sale on July 6.