For Sale: Beethoven's Skull

[AeolianHarp]

In the course of my investigation of this realm, I learned that Ludwig van Beethoven's skull is for sale.

The seller is California businessman Paul Kaufmann, who first became aware that his family possessed the item in 1990. While searching among his late mother's possessions, he happened on an ancient, pear-shaped box labeled "Beethoven."

Years of investigation by historians and scientists make a compelling case that the box was labeled accurately. Exhibit A: Kaufmann's great-great uncle was a physician closely involved in the 1863 exhumation of Beethoven (and Franz Schubert) largely for scientific study; according to several accounts, the physician kept Beethoven's skull. Exhibit B: Tests of existing strands of the composer's hair point to a DNA match. For Exhibits C through Z, see Dickey's book.

In 2005, Kaufmann loaned the skull, which is in fragments, to the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San José State University, so that tests might be conducted to learn about Beethoven's medical condition and cause of death.

Now Kaufmann would like to find a permanent home for the skull. "The objective is to share it with the public," he told me. "In my heart it should be in a museum." He also hopes that a compatible institution will pay in excess of $100,000.

According to Dickey, Brilliant Center director William Meredith, and other experts I spoke to, it's difficult to place a cash value on the skull, though Kaufmann may meet his goal at auction. In 1978, a skull purported to belong to theologian Emanuel Swedenborg sold at Sotheby's for $3,200. Earlier this month, Christie's planned to auction a skull that had been used as a ballot box by Yale's secret Skull and Bones society. Before withdrawing the item due to a title claim, the company estimated it would sell for $10,000 to $20,000.

Kaufmann told me that Sotheby's turned him down, reluctant to again deal in body parts. (I've been in touch with Sotheby's officials but have yet to receive a comment.) But a prominent British vendor, whom Kaufmann preferred not to name, is eager to conduct the sale. Christie's may be a contender as well. A Christie's spokesperson, Erin McAndrew, told me via e-mail: "Christie's policy is in keeping with applicable local and federal laws in each jurisdiction in which we sell. Every item is considered on a case by case basis in accordance with that policy."

"Out of respect for the dignity of Beethoven," Dickey says, "I think most people would be happy to see [the skull] go to some resting place." An obvious choice would be Vienna's Central Cemetery, where the rest of Beethoven's body is interred.

While agreeing that the skull deserves to be treated with reverence, Meredith questions reinterment, at least in the short term. "Is it kept as something that will help us understand the person better, or is it kept as a souvenir? People often willingly leave their body parts to science so as to advance medical knowledge and understanding. Beethoven specifically asked his doctor to reveal to the world what his medical condition was."

For now, Kaufmann asks interested parties to e-mail him at skullbet@yahoo.com.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-..._b_427015.html

Got to be a wind up surely? Beethoven's skull must be in his tomb in Vienna.

[Michael]

Got to be a wind up surely? Beethoven's skull must be in his tomb in Vienna.

Damn! Why didn't somebody warn me? I've gone and bought the bloody thing!

[Megan]

According to this account, Beethoven's skull is not in one piece.

https://blogs.funeralwise.com/dying/...t-to-san-jose/

[Peter]

It sounds fishy to me - Dr.Gerhard Breuning also was involved with the 1863 exhumation and he describes having the skull in his possession for some days whilst studies were made - the same was done with Schubert's skull. The skulls were photographed at that time. He makes no reference to the skull not being re-interred with the rest of Beethoven's remains.

(1863 Oct 13) - First exhumation of both Schubert and Beethoven in order to better preserve the body by placing it in a metal casket within a bricked-in vault. Gerhard Breuning (who as a 13 year old boy had known Beethoven) was present, and noted the compact thickness of Beethoven's skull in comparison to the 'almost feminine thinness' of Schubert's. Another striking feature was the presence of a fine gold filling in the last left molar - a rarity for the 1820's. Both skulls were photographed by J.B.Rottmayer and plaster casts were made by Wittman. As a member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Gerhard Breuning had custody of Beethoven's skull - In his own words " what stormy feelings passed through my mind evoking such powerful memories, as I had possession of that head for a few days, cleaned from it bits of dirt, took plaster casts of the base of the skull for Professor Romeo Seligmann, kept it by my bedside overnight, and in general proudly watched over that head from whose mouth, in years gone by, I had so often heard the living word!"

There is also an account of the 2nd exhumation in 1888 Jun 22nd - 4 pm
- During the second disinterment, the casket was opened and scientists were allowed twenty minutes to examine and measure the bones. Photographs were again taken. The composer Anton Bruckner was present and Bruckner was a very traditional Catholic with a reverence for relics, such as the remains of saints. For him composers like Beethoven were "saints," and when Beethoven and Schubert's remains were exhumed for reburial close to each other in the Central Cemetery in Vienna, Bruckner insisted upon being present and in handling the remains of Beethoven, even being the one to put Beethoven's skull back in the casket after examination by physicians. Afterwards he was proud of the fact that he might have lost a lens out of his pince nez glasses in handling Beethoven's bones and that the lens might have ended up being buried with Beethoven!

[Joy]

When I was at the Ira Brilliant Beethoven Center the museum guide showed us the lock of Beethoven's hair in sealed container and it was kept in a backroom and was not on display at that time. The skull was not on display either.

Here's what I found concerning Haydn's skull: 'The head of Haydn was exhumed and separated by a phrenologist who wished to locate Haydn's genius, as was Mozart's. (Mozart's it should be noted, may not have been the composers skull at all, as it was exhumed from a mass grave some years after his death.) Haydn's skull was eventually re-interred with the body after nearly 150 years - Haydn spent many of those years with someone else's skull playing the role. Mozart's, if it is indeed his, is in the possession, of the Mozarteum.'

[AeolianHarp]

It sounds fishy to me - Dr.Gerhard Breuning also was involved with the 1863 exhumation and he describes having the skull in his possession for some days whilst studies were made - the same was done with Schubert's skull. The skulls were photographed at that time. He makes no reference to the skull not being re-interred with the rest of Beethoven's remains.

Yes, I think so too- look at the email address...
I know about Dr Gerhard as I have an ebook of his memoirs- it was free online! One day I will have it printed out and bound.

Another striking feature was the presence of a fine gold filling in the last left molar - a rarity for the 1820's.

Do you mean a tooth of Beethoven's? That's very interesting.One of his doctors wrote to Beethoven in the 1820s that he'd feel better now he'd had a "tooth pulled" ( poor Ludwig yikes), but I have not come across any references to him having a gold filling. It was said by his friends that he had very good white even teeth ( and this was talking about him when he was in his 40s).
Having a gold filling wasn't that unusual for someone of his social class.

See here how Jane Austen describes a visit to the dentist in 1813:

https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.c...ental-hygiene/

As for Beethoven's filling; this would have been a lengthy and agonising process (maybe as painful as having a tooth pulled out). It would have been done with a hand drill like this:



http://collectmedicalantiques.com/ga...al-instruments

Dental Drills.

For most of the eighteenth century France was the world’s center of dentistry, and many important innovations arose there. In 1778 another Parisian surgeon, Anselme Jourdain, published a comprehensive text on dentistry in which he pictured an instrument he called a porte écarissoir — the germ of the idea of a mechanical revolving drill. The operator gripped a handle with one hand while turning a crank at the end of a shaft with the other, thus rotating a gear that spun a notched wheel attached to a small drill point. Clumsy as it was, the device could nevertheless fit in the mouth and be used on back teeth.

TOWARD THE END OF THE 1700s, American dentistry started coming to the fore. The most famous dental patient of the century was George Washington. The first President suffered grievously from toothache, and he tried a number of dentists before settling on John Greenwood of New York City.

In 1790 Greenwood converted a spinning wheel into a drill. His son, Isaac John Greenwood, who also became a dentist, wrote about it to a colleague in 1860: “My father was the first to use the foot-drill, and he made it himself from an old spinning wheel of my grandmother’s; and, since his death, I myself used it, the same one, altogether in my practice for twenty years, and I have it yet. I never had seen one before, and I know the hand bow-drill was always used before.”


Most dentists continued to use simple steel drills that they twirled between thumb and forefinger. The drill’s simplicity was not a virtue from the patient’s standpoint: A medium-sized cavity required at least half an hour of pressure and twirling, so it’s no surprise that many toothache sufferers chose extraction over filling.

Poor Beethoven! How did he stand it!!!

http://www.innovationgateway.org/con...drill-1?page=2

[Joy]

Ugh! That looks more like a torture device!

[AeolianHarp]

Ugh! That looks more like a torture device!

In effect it was.

[Albert Gans]

Strange, because I've met William Meredith once in Vienna and I know he is a very knowledgeable and respected scholar of Beethoven. Not sure about this being fishy.... I could alsways ask 'Dickey'.... if he finds time to answer.

[AeolianHarp]

Strange, because I've met William Meredith once in Vienna and I know he is a very knowledgeable and respected scholar of Beethoven. Not sure about this being fishy.... I could alsways ask 'Dickey'.... if he finds time to answer.

Yes, do! that would be interesting Albert- the article is a few years old, so it would be interesting to know what happened to Beethoven's skull fragments.

[Michael]

Some more bones to pick:

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-...ost-likely-not

[Albert Gans]

I've just sent Bill Meredith a message about this. Let's see if he answers !

[Albert Gans]

Quick response from Bill in San José:
"Well, that is interesting news. Paul is trying to get the Beethoven house to appraise the items because he is telling them he is interested in giving them to them.

There is a story in today's Mercury News that you should see. If you know anything bout the auction house he has been talking to, it would be very helpful. Thanks! Will"

Any further response more than welcome, of course.

I guess this is the article he is refering to:http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_2...not-beethovens

[AeolianHarp]

Thanks for that Albert.

[Albert Gans]

Here's the latest I got from Will Meredith on this:
Corrections to Bruce Newman’s San Jose Mercury News article (July 24, 2015) on the Kaufmann Skull Fragments

William Meredith, Director, Beethoven Center (July 24, 2015)

I regret that a San Jose Mercury News reporter was assigned to cover this story who is neither an expert in medical science or in music history. A key premise of the story, reflected in the inaccurate headline of the online July 23rd version, is false (“San Jose State: Dem Bones most likely not Beethoven’s”). The alternate headline in the printed paper (“Blow to SJSU Center: Finding Casts Shadow Over Celebration of 30th Anniversary / Analysis Refutes Skull Fragments as Beethoven’s”), is an improvement, but it still is false as Dr. White’s discovery is hardly a blow to the Center. When we began the forensic work on hair and bone samples that were claimed to be from Beethoven, we operated from the principle of “follow the science.” The Center has never owned the skull fragments or had them on loan for an extended period. Dr. White’s discovery is important in the forensic study of Beethoven’s health because it rules out their use as sources for the answers that may one day be found through DNA analysis.

Four principal errors and one important deliberate omission in the article should be corrected and clarified.

1. The temporary loan of the fragments to the Center had absolutely nothing to do with the Center being labeled Beethoven’s “third home.” That label was first applied to the Beethoven Center because it owns the largest collection of Beethoven first and early editions, manuscripts, rare books, artwork related to Beethoven and his times, and other documents in the United States. Mr. Newman’s article, which I was told would focus on the Center’s 30th anniversary and work, says nothing about the Center‘s founding and history, its collections, the creation of The Beethoven Gateway and The Beethoven Journal, its decades of research, and its work promoting Beethoven’s humanitarian ideals and music that continue to inspire people around the world.

2. I did not “declare” the skull fragments to be authentic in 2005. The fragments had been declared to be Beethoven’s in 1985—the year the Beethoven Center opened—by two Viennese physicians, who misdiagnosed the identity of one of the fragments as a parietal rather than a frontal bone. No researchers in the field of science or Beethoven studies had questioned their authenticity between 1985 and 2005, so their authenticity had never been called into question, and there was no need for me to “declare” that they were Beethoven’s. The purpose of the 2005 Beethoven Journal article was to trace the history (provenance) of the bones through the illustrious Kaufmann family, beginning with Romeo Seligmann, the first professor of the history of music at the University of Vienna, through Romeo’s son Adalbert Seligmann (a famous painter), to Adalbert’s nephew Thomas Desmines, to Paul Kaufmann (Danville, California).

3. The online headline states that the Kaufmann skull fragments are “most likely not Beethoven’s” and that this discovery came from SJSU. According to world-renowned osteologist and anthropologist Dr. Tim White at the University of California, Berkeley, the bone fragment that was misidentified in 1985 by two Viennese doctors cannot be from Beethoven because it is a right frontal bone and shows no sign of ever having been sawn through during a craniotomy. Beethoven’s autopsy report states that the doctor sawed off the top of Beethoven’s skull and that he removed the ear bones. The saw cut, which was described as “very rough,” can be seen in the photograph below. Dr. White’s findings were verified by four other osteologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz; San Francisco State University; and CSU-Chico. The accurate headline for both the web and printed versions should have been: “Dr. Tim White (and Five Other Osteologists): Kaufmann’s Skull Fragments Not Beethoven’s.” A photograph of Dr. White holding the Kaufmann frontal fragment in its correct location on a skull is attached as well.

4. The “center” did not purposefully keep the findings quiet for three years. Paul Kaufmann, the owner of the fragments, told me that he did not want Dr. White’s identification to be made public in 2012 and stated that Dr. White’s findings were his (Mr. Kaufmann’s) intellectual property. Dr. White, who made the discovery that was confirmed later that summer by five osteologists, did not release or publish his two important findings (i.e., that the parietal bone had been misdiagnosed and that it cannot be from Beethoven’s skull because it shows no signs of the craniotomy). I told Mr. Kaufman in 2012 that I would answer any questions about the bones and new research that were put to me, which has happened on several occasions, including with the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn.

5. Deliberately omitted from Mr. Newman’s story was that the purpose of the visit to Dr. White’s laboratory in 2012 was to ask him to examine and identify approximately 15 very small pieces of bone fragments that had never been studied by any osteologist. Paul Kaufmann’s mother had referred to the bones as “ear bones.” Since Beethoven’s ear bones disappeared since soon after his autopsy, Paul Kaufmann agreed to my suggestion to have an expert examine the small pieces to see if what his mother had told him was true. If some of the fragments had indeed been from Beethoven’s ears, that analysis would have been an important discovery because we still do not know what caused the composer’s deafness. Instead, Dr. White determined that they were fragments from the larger skull fragments.

It is a shame that a story that was supposed to tell the story of the first three decades of the only Beethoven center in the United States got derailed by inaccurate reporting about one small chapter in the Center’s history—and one that is ongoing, as the reporter was told. The Center is currently engaged in a new project to collaborate with a prestigious German laboratory to sequence the composer’s DNA from strands of his hair using new techniques, and the researchers have assured us that they will publish the data so that it will be available to all future DNA researchers and Beethoven historians.