In this week’s instalment of ‘weird items being auctioned off for ridiculous amounts of money,’ we have a lock of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s hair.
Beethoven originally gave this hair to fellow pianist Anton Halm in 1926, a year before his death but not without a struggle.
A “substantial” lock of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s hair has been auctioned for $64,000
The request for the lock was asked on behalf of Halm’s wife, Maria as he was making an arrangement of Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge op.133. Bizarrely, the composer’s factotum cut off goat’s hair and gave it to Halm, attempting to pass it off as Beethoven’s. After Halm completed the piano arrangement, the famed composer proceeded to cut his hair himself as a sign of sincerity.
This gift was sold by London auction house Sotheby’s on Tuesday with the accompanying description, “a substantial lock of the composer’s grey and dark brown hair”. The winning bid was £35,000 also known as $64,060.64 in AUD, which was more than double the earlier predicted estimates of $22,000.
This is actually the second auction of Beethoven’s hair. In 1994, two locks were purchased to figure out why he had suffered from poor health. Those samplings were cut from his head after his death in 1827.
Compared to other celebrity locks, Beethoven knocks it out of the park. In 2016, a snippet of John Lennon’s hair from 1966 was sold for $50,356 and in the same year, David Bowie’s went for $25,897.50.
