The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
The Guevara Lock of Beethoven's Hair
The Guevara Lock of Beethoven's Hair is now available for viewing during most of the Center's open hours throughout the year. Please note that the Center is generally closed during the last two weeks of December for the holidays (see information on the Center hours). Also, at times the hair will be taken off display for exhibits at other institutions. If you plan to visit the Center to see the hair, please check with the Curator prior to planning your visit.
A special exhibit on the hair was installed in the Beethoven Center from October 23, 2000 through April 20, 2001. Click here to see a photograph of the hair and a guide to the exhibit.
| Recent history | Provenance |
| Description | Scientific testing |
| Contact information | Beethoven's Hair by Russell Martin |
| Exhibit guide | Beethoven's Hair film |
1. Recent history and current location
The Guevara Lock of Beethoven's hair was purchased at auction for £3,600 ($7,300 including commission) at Sotheby's, London, in December 1994 by four members of the American Beethoven Society: Dr. Alfredo Guevara, Mr. Ira Brilliant, Dr. Thomas Wendel, and Caroline Crummey. Mr. Brilliant, Dr. Wendel, and Mrs. Crummey then donated their portion to the Beethoven Center. Dr. Guevara, the principal investor, donated a majority of his portion to the Center as well, and the lock is named in honor of this generous gift. The portion of the lock in San Jose contains 422 hairs (73% of the original); Dr. Guevara retains the remaining 160 hairs (27%). All of the hairs used for testing have come from Dr. Guevara' portion.
Dr. Guevara, a urologist, and Mr. Brilliant, a Beethoven collector and specialist, have assembled a nationwide team of scientists to perform tests on a small sample of the portion of the hair in Dr. Guevara's possession.
The lock contains hair with three clearly observable colors: grey, white, and brown. The hairs range in length from 7-15 cm. (ca. 3-6 inches). Given that hair grows at an average rate of one-half inch per month, the hair cut from Beethoven's head on his death bed represents hair grown during the last 6-12 months of Beethoven's life.
Other locks of Beethoven's hair are located in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; the University of Hartford, Connecticut; the British Library, London, Great Britian; the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna, Austria; and the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, Germany.
3. Provenance of the lock of hair
The original provenance of the lock of hair is clear from an inscription written on the back of the frame of the locket: "This hair was cut off of Beethoven's corpse by my father, Dr. Ferdinand v. Hiller, on the day after Ludwig van Beethoven's death, that is, on 27 March 1827, and was given to me as a birthday present in Cologne on May 1, 1883. Paul Hiller [English translation]." Ferdinand Hiller was a German conductor and teacher who traveled to Vienna in 1827 at the age of fifteen to visit the dying Beethoven on his death bed. Hiller later wrote down details of two of his visits (March 13 and 20), including the fact that during the March 20 visit Beethoven whispered "I rather think I shall soon be setting out on the upward journey." The lock of hair stayed in the Hiller family until sometime in the 20th century. It next surfaced in 1943 when it was given to a Danish doctor named Kay Alexander Fremming as payment for providing medical treatment for Jews trying to escape from the Nazis. The lock of hair stayed in the Fremming family until it was sold at auction at Sotheby's in December 1994.
For an extended history, please consult the book Beethoven's Hair by Russell Martin (New York: Broadway Book, 2000), released on October 17, 2000. $24.95 U.S./R37.95 Can. 256 p. ISBN 0-7679-0350-1. For more information, contact Brian Jones in the publicity dept. at Ramdom House (212-782-8943).
A film version of Beethoven's Hair, produced for Canadian television by Rhombus Media in 2005, received five nominations for Gemini Awards (Canada's equivalent of the Emmy Awards). The film won awards in three categories: sound, screenwriting (Thomas Wallner), and directing (Larry Weinstein).
For more detailed information on the scientific testing, see the text of the Press Conference by Dr. William Walsh.
For the German text of an article by Dr. Christian Reiter from the Wiener Beethoven-Gesellschaft, Mitteilungsblatt (1/2007), click here.
Three scientific tests have been conducted on the hair as of October 2000.
Test no. 1: Radio-immuno assay. Dr. Werner Baumgartner, Los Angeles. May 1996.
The first test was conducted by Dr. Werner Baumgartner at Psychemedics Corporation, Los Angeles. The radio-immuno assay involved examination of 20 hairs to see if Beethoven received any opiate painkillers during the last months of his life. A negative result was obtained, indicating that these hairs did not contain any evidence to support ingestion of morphine or other forms of opiates (such as laudanum). Morphine has a long and historic use as a pain-killer, sedative, treatment for fever, and anti-diarrhea medicine in Europe. The Encyclopedia of Medical History notes that "Before 1870, European medicine regarded opium as a virtual panacea."
Beethoven received over 75 bottles of medicine and numerous medicinal powders from his physician Dr. Andreas Wawruch (1771-1842) while he was on his deathbed. According to Anton Schindler (Beethoven's secretary), Dr. Wawruch "ruined him [Beethoven] with too much medication" and Beethoven lost confidence in the doctor. There is no record of which medicines Wawruch prescribed for Beethoven. (See the standard biography of Beethoven, Thayer's Life of Beethoven, ed. Elliot Forbes, rev. ed., Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1967, p. 1031.)
Test no. 2: Trace metals analysis. Dr. William Walsh, Naperville, Illinois.
The second test was a trace metals analysis conducted by Dr. William Walsh at the HRI & Pfeiffer Research Center in Naperville, Illinois. This test will reveal the presence of any trace heavy metals. The following results of this test were announced by Dr. Walsh on Tuesday, October 17:
High lead concentrations in Beethoven's hair were found in independent analyses by McCrone Research Institute & Argonne National Laboratory. This is evidence that Beethoven had plumbism (lead poisoning) which may have caused his life-long illnesses, impacted his personality, and possibly contributed to his death.
Distinctive trace-metal patterns associated with genius, irritability, glucose disorders, and malabsorption were not present in the Beethoven samples tested by McCrone Research Institute.
Very low (undetectable) mercury levels were reported independently by McCrone Research Institute and Argonne National Laboratory. These results provide no evidence that Beethoven received medical treatment for syphilis, usually treated in the 1820's with mercury compounds. This supports the consensus of Beethoven scholars who believe that Beethoven never had syphilis. Rumors that Beethoven suffered from syphilis have been discounted in all serious musicological literature for the last thirty years.
Test no. 3: DNA analysis of three hairs from Dr. Guevara's portion
Because some of the strands of hair contained portions of the bulb, three hairs from the portion owned by Dr. Guevara were tested at Laboratory Corporation of America in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Results were received by Dr. Guevara and the Beethoven Center in June 1999. The results that were obtained will be used in the future to match the Guevara Lock to other locks of hair or other material.
Scientists and historians who wish to proposed a project that would involve use of this information should contact William Meredith, Director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies.
For more information about the Guevara Lock of Beethoven's Hair, contact:
Dr. Alfredo Guevara, Nogales, Arizona
(520) 761-3103
Russell Martin, Colorado, author of Beethoven's Hair
russellmartin@SayYesQuickly.net
Dr. William Meredith, San José, CA
Director, Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
(408) 808-2056
Dr. William Walsh
HRI+Pfeiffer Treatment Center, Naperville, IL
(630) 505-0300
Dr. Werner Baumgartner, Los Angeles, CA
(800) 522-7424
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