David Bowie notes reveal unknown final project The Spectator at the V&A

Notes revealing a previously unknown final project by David Bowie have been unearthed and donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, museum officials said. The documents, discovered after Bowie's death in 2016 inside a locked study in New York, outline an 18th century musical tentatively titled The Spectator that the singer and songwriter worked on in his final months.

Archivists found the material, including a dedicated notebook, detailed sticky notes and Post-it notes that had been affixed to the walls of the private office, a space only Bowie and his personal assistant could access, officials said. The papers were among roughly 90,000 items in the artist's archive acquired by the V&A with support from the David Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group. Selected items and the desk where Bowie worked will be on display when the David Bowie Centre opens at the V&A East Storehouse in Hackney Wick on September 13, the museum said.

Bowie's notes describe The Spectator as a stage work inspired by the early 18th century periodical of the same name, which ran between 1711 and 1712 and commented on London's mores. The materials show Bowie sketching...