>> there's no way of knowing. >> for howard, it was all about the gongs puccini obsessed over.s them at all. >> it's a jarring transition from when puccini wrote his last note. >> howard, whose most prized possession was puccini's custom-made gongs, had one dying wish for his wife, marlene -- fix "turandot" by selling the gongs for enough money to commission a new ending for the opera. ♪ tall order. howard bought the gongs in 1983 for $8,000, and marlene had them appraised in 2010 for, she says, 100 grand -- still not enough to get a first-rate composer to write a new "turandot" ending. what's your price? >> i think that they're worth between $1 million and $2 million. nothing like this has ever been sold. [ gong chimes resonating ] >> think they're worth $1 million? >> [ chuckles ] well, you can hope. i'm not sure about that. >> greg zuber, the met's current lead percussionist, who we met earlier, chimes in. it sounds to me like puccini had to have these gongs. >> he absolutely needed them for the right flavor of the opera to suggest china in its ancient setting. [ gong chimes