Famous Lock of Beethoven’s Hair Actually From a Woman

A lock of hair thought to be Beethoven’s that was the subject of a book and a documentary actually came from an unrelated woman, a new study says. The hair, supposedly clipped from the composer’s head after his 1827 death by a teenage acolyte and passed down through the ages, was even displayed at the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University in California. But The New York Times reports DNA testing of that sample and others debunked that myth and others: Beethoven did not have lead poisoning as was widely believed and he was not related to a Flemish family of the same name. Among other surprises, the authentic hair locks revealed that Beethoven’s father may have been the product of an affair and that Beethoven himself had hepatitis B.