A wisp of fair hair in a gold locket, twisted around a note declaring that it was cut from the head of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is expected to fetch up to £12,000 (17,000 euro equivalent) at auction this week.
The curl had been minded carefully guarded by the families of various musicians, passed on through the generations.
The lock of hair is being sold in a gold locket. Such souvenirs of famous figures are not uncommon, often mounted in jewellery. The Sotheby’s sale also includes an invitation to Beethoven’s funeral, and a smaller lock of his hair, expected to fetch up to £3,000 (4,235 euro equivalent.).
Beethoven’s friend, Gerhard von Breuning,once recalled that when he came to pay his last respects to Beethoven in 1827, he discovered that visitors had already snipped off all his white hair.
In 2002, Sotheby’s sold another lock of Mozart’s hair, passed on by the mistress of one of the composer’s sons. That set a record price of £38,000, which was more than double the pre-sale estimate. The sale is on Thursday May 28.
