An incredible archive of material relating to the first 20 years of the Beach Boys' career will be sold by The Fame Bureau.

The Beach Boys are aware of the sale, but have refused to pass comment

The vast collection holds a reserve price of $10m, meaning that whoever makes a bid will have already exceeded the world record for a music collection.

It was reportedly discovered at a blind storage facility auction in 2000, before being sold to a private company after prolonged legal disputes.

Alan Boyd, a Beach Boys archivist and expert comments: "This historic collection containing many of the Beach Boys' own publishing documents along with assorted handwritten musical pieces, vintage legal papers, and various promotional and personal items from their early years, presents a priceless look into the inner workings of this legendary group."

"Historical artefacts like Brian Wilson and Mike Love's signatures on the original songwriter agreements for their 1968 classic Do It Again, for example, or the original publisher's lead sheet for Help Me, Rhonda, and even the Beach Boys' own copy of the Library of Congress copyright certificate for Good Vibrations - these take on a significance that the people who generated them could scarcely have dreamed of back in the early 1960s."

According to The Fame Bureau, the Beach Boys are aware of the sale but have refused to comment. They are apparently unaware of how the archive ended up in the storage unit, but it is thought to have been there since the 1980s.

The collection will preview in New York on April 15 and at the Hard Rock Cafe on April 18. A date for the sale has not yet been set.

Paul Fraser Collectibles has a range of music memorabilia for sale, including signed photographs, documents and handwritten lyrics.