For sale: Rodgers and Hammerstein hits

The daughters of Richard Rodgers (pictured left) and Oscar Hammerstein are selling off the legendary composers' musical archive – with a price tag of £163m. Mary Rodgers Guettel and Alice Hammerstein Mathias have put up for sale the company their parents formed after the war, Williamson Music – so called because both their fathers were called William – which includes the songs from The Sound of Music and South Pacific.

In addition to all of R & H's hits, among them I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair and Some Enchanted Evening, the company owners the rights to compositions by Irving Berlin, Lorenz Hart and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Other treasures include White Christmas and There's Nothing Like a Dame. Although the composer’s songs have been covered extensively, and even sampled by the rap star Dizzee Rascal, insiders claim the elderly daughters have not been managing the catalogue’s full commercial potential.