Beethoven's deafness explained thanks to bones discovered in a chest on the Côte d'Azur?

Suspected fragments of Ludwig van Beethoven's skull were handed over to Austria, where the influential Germanic composer died in the 19th century, with experts hoping to elucidate the causes of his deafness and disappearance. "Their place is here, in Vienna," said American businessman Paul Kaufmann, who donated these relics to the city's medical university, at a press conference on Thursday.

He inherited them in 1990 to his greatest surprise, discovering them in a bank vault on the Côte d'Azur. "There were many treasures, including this box with the inscription 'Beethoven' on the surface," he recalls.

Beethoven's unmentionable secret revealed by his DNA

These ten fragments had probably been recovered by his ancestor Franz Romeo Seligmann, a Viennese doctor who had participated in 1863 in the exhumation of the composer's bones for study purposes. They were then passed on from generation to generation, changing countries as this Jewish family fled Nazism. These bones, the only ones known to date, have a “great value”, underlined the medical examiner Christian Reiter, in front of the precious objects preserved under a glass display.

After analyzes to confirm their authenticity, the results of which are expected within six months, new research will be carried out to try to find out more about the cause of the many pathologies from which he suffered. “That was also Beethoven's wish. It is not a question of keeping a relic in a crate,” underlined Mr. Reiter.

In 1802, the composer had expressed his desire, in a letter to his brothers written in a moment of despair, that his illness be described after his death and made public.

Two centuries later, the mystery remains around the exact reasons for his death, which occurred on March 26, 1827 at the age of 56. These cranial fragments have already been examined with X-rays in 2005 in the United States, suggesting the trail of lead poisoning which would explain in particular the digestive problems from which Ludwig van Beethoven suffered.

He used to drink from goblets of this metal. Medical treatments of the time also often used lead or mercury. A study published in March, based on DNA analysis of strands of her hair, however, shed a different light.

She revealed strong genetic predispositions to liver disease, as well as hepatitis B virus infection at the end of her life, two factors that likely contributed to her death, most likely from cirrhosis, aggravated by alcohol consumption. But the researchers unfortunately could not determine the cause of his progressive deafness, which caused so much pain to the author of the 9th Symphony.