A lock of German composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous wavy hair will be auctioned off by Sotheby’s on Tuesday, according to CNN. The hair, which is estimated to be worth between $15,000 and $19,000, is tied with a silk thread and will be sold in a glazed oval frame. The hair lock first belonged to composer Anton Halm, who asked for the hair to give to his wife, who then gave it to a piano student Beethoven favored in 1815. The lock on the block Tuesday is the second to be auctioned off by Sotheby’s. The first, which was cut from the composer’s head when he died in 1827, was sold in 1994 for an undisclosed sum to two American Beethoven enthusiasts, who had the hair tested and found levels of lead 100 times higher than normal.
