Suspected fragments of Ludwig van Beethoven’s skull were handed over to Austria, where the influential German composer died in the 19th century. Experts hope to elucidate the causes of his deafness and disappearance.
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“Their place is here, in Vienna,” American businessman Paul Kaufmann, who donated the relics to the city’s medical university, said at a press conference on Thursday.
To his great surprise, he inherited it in 1990 when he discovered it in a bank vault on the French Riviera.
“There were a lot of treasures, including this box with ‘Beethoven’ written on the top,” he recalls.
Photo: AFP
These ten fragments are thought to have been recovered by his ancestor Franz Romeo Seligmann, a Viennese physician who helped exhume the composer’s bones for study in 1863.
They were then passed down from generation to generation, changing countries as this Jewish family fled Nazism.
Photo: AFP
These bones, the only ones known to date, are of “great value,” emphasized forensic pathologist Christian Reiter in front of the precious objects preserved under a glass case.
Photo: AFP
After analyzes to confirm its authenticity, the results of which are expected within six months, new investigations will be carried out to find out more about the cause of the numerous pathologies from which he suffered.
“That was also Beethoven’s wish. “It’s not about keeping a relic in a box,” emphasized Reiter.
In 1802, in a letter to his brothers, the composer had, in a moment of desperation, expressed the wish that after his death his illness would be described and published.
Photo: AFP
Two centuries later, the exact reasons for his death, which occurred on March 26, 1827 at the age of 56, remain a mystery.
These skull fragments were X-rayed in the US as early as 2005 and suggested traces of lead poisoning, which would particularly explain the digestive problems Ludwig van Beethoven suffered from.
He drank from goblets made of this metal. Lead and mercury were often used in medical treatments at that time.
However, a study published in March based on DNA analyzes of her hair strands sheds a different light.
She showed a strong genetic predisposition to liver disease, as well as being infected with the hepatitis B virus at the end of her life, two factors that likely contributed to her death, most likely from cirrhosis of the liver made worse by alcohol consumption.
Unfortunately, researchers could not determine the cause of his progressive deafness, which caused the author of the 9th symphony so much pain.