Beethoven's skull fragments donated by US businessman

May 18, 2023

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Austrian scientists are hoping the bones of Beethoven will sing them a song of what ailed the famed composer in life.

Fragments of Beethoven’s skull have been donated to the Medical University of Vienna, by an American businessman whose ancestor kept them in an engraved tin box.

California businessman Paul Kaufmann originally found the bones in 1990, when his mother died in France.

“In her purse was a key to a safety deposit box in a local bank. When my wife and I opened it, among other things we found a little tin container and on the surface was inscribed ‘Beethoven,'” Kaufmann told CNN.

After years of research, he determined the pieces were acquired from the estate of his mother’s great-uncle, Franz Romeo Seligman.

Beethoven died in 1827 at the age of 56.

He suffered from progressive hearing loss, gastrointestinal problems and liver disease during his lifetime, and in 1802 wrote to his brothers asking that after his death, his physicians determine what exactly his illness was.

Seligman was a doctor and medical historian from Vienna who died in 1892.

The skull pieces, which are now referred to as the Seligmann fragments, came to him in 1863 during a reburial of Beethoven’s remains.

In March, Current Biology released a study that analyzed Beethoven’s DNA from preserved strands of his hair and sequenced the composer’s genome for the first time.

The hair samples helped scientists shed light on Beethoven’s family history, health problems and possible causes for his early death.

Kaufmann met with the scientists who made that discovery, and they were able to extract DNA samples from the bones.

Now, the fragments will be kept at the university’s museum, the Josephinum.

“It is extremely emotional to me to return the fragments where they belong, back to where Beethoven is buried,” he said.