SAN FRANCISCO The great-great nephew of an Austrian doctor who acquired several fragments of what was thought to be Ludwig van Beethoven’s skull in 1863 said Thursday that recently completed tests show a high likelihood that the bones he inherited 15 years ago belonged to the great composer.
Paul Kaufmann, a Danville businessman, made the announcement at the Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University, which since 1999 has helped coordinate forensic testing to both authenticate the identity of the bone fragments and determine what killed Beethoven at age 56.
Kaufmann, 68, said he only found out in 1986 during a visit with his aging uncle in France that some of Beethoven’s remains had been passed down through his family for generations. At the time, he was skeptical.
“I never saw them, and frankly, I didn’t put much stock in that,” he said.
The fragments – two large pieces and 11 smaller ones – were passed on to him after his uncle’s death in 1990. Kaufmann started working with the Center for Beethoven Studies after a writer doing a book on Beethoven tracked him down in Danville.
“Our major focus, frankly, was to validate that these were in fact Beethoven’s skull fragments,” he said.
The largest two skull fragments, both from the back of a skull, are on permanent loan to the scholarly center. Director William Meredith called the discovery a major event both for classical music lovers and scientists, since the cause of Beethoven’s death has been under speculation since he died in 1827.
“It puts you in the physical presence of Beethoven’s body, and if Beethoven’s music means a great deal to you, that is a very powerful thing and has a lot of meaning,” Meredith said.
DNA tests on the hair and bone samples that could definitively determine that the fragments belonged to Beethoven are currently underway at the University of Munster in Germany, Meredith said.
“The tests are promising, but they are not finished,” he said.
The bones made their way into Kaufmann’s family in 1863, when Beethoven’s body was exhumed, studied some more and reburied. Kaufmann’s great-great uncle, a skull collector and doctor named Romeo Seligmann, reportedly acquired them while making models of Beethoven’s skull, Meredith said.
Meredith said San Jose State will not display the skull fragments for some time and when it does, plans to do so in a respectful way that recognizes the composer’s genius.
“If you have something that is this precious, you have to be extremely cautious about your historical responsibilities,” he said.