Mozart’s hair to fetch £ 10,000
STRANDS of hair belonging to two master composers are expected to fetch at least £ 12,000 when they are auctioned this week.
A lock of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s hair has been valued at around £ 10,000 by Sotheby’s auction house.
And a lock of Ludwig van Beethoven’s has been given an estimated price of £ 2,000 in a separate lot, which also includes a printed invitation to the German’s funeral.
Contained in a 19thcentury gilt locket, the lock of Mozart’s hair was passed from his widow Constanze to the German conductor Karl Anschutz before it was given to the English composer Arthur Somervell, whose descendent now owns the keepsake.
Mozart, whose works include The Magic Flute and The Marriage Of Figaro, died in 1791.
Beethoven, who wrote nine symphonies, passed away in 1827.
In 2002 another lock of Mozart’s hair, passed down from the mistress of one of Mozart’s sons, sold at Sotheby’s for £ 38,240, double the pre- sale estimate.
The items are on display to the public at Sotheby’s in London until tomorrow ahead of the auction on Thursday.