BODY ODYSSEYS OF THE FAMOUS

The bodies of some famous people have experienced an odyssey after death. Here are some examples.

HAYDN

The world famous composer, Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) had his head stolen. Fortunately, he was dead at the time. "Rest in peace" certainly did not apply to the composer of "The Creation", "The Seasons", and other great works. His journey was just beginning---and it would last for 145 years.

On 31 May 1809, when the renowned composer died of old age at his home in Vienna at age 77, there would have normally been an elaborate funeral. Although Haydn's timing in music was perfect, his timing in death was not. Austria had just been conquered by Napoleon and his troops were occupying Vienna. No funeral was planned and Haydn's corpse was quietly removed to an obscure parish church in Gumpendorf.

A group of phrenologists managed to steal Haydn's head and have his headless body buried. Phrenology is the pseudo science of studying head bumps for their alleged significance in determining personality and behaviour. Phrenology was quite fashionable in the 18th and 19th centuries. The skulls of the famous were often studied. In 1820, after Napoleon was defeated, Austria liberated, and Vienna no longer occupied, Haydn's patron Prince Nicolaus II Esterhazy inquired as to what had happened to Haydn's body in all the confusion. He became enraged when he found out the truth, especially since his own secretary was implicated in the theft.

A major search took place. Haydn's skull had been passed around from owner to owner like a football during the Grand Final. Finally, in 1839, Haydn's skull was acquired by the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1895, the skull was displayed in the Academy's Museum in a glass case upon a piano. It was only in 1954 that Haydn's head was finally reunited with his body and buried at the Bergkirche church in Eisenstadt.

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MOZART

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) is considered to be the greatest musical genius of his day or of all time depending upon which authority you ask. "The Magic Flute", "The Marriage of Figaro", "Cosi Fan Tuti", and "Don Juan" (no relation) were just some of Mozart's many immortal works. When he died on 5 December 1791 at age 35, he was buried in a pauper's grave in a cemetery near the village of St. Marx.

Only a few friends attended Mozart's funeral. His body was removed from the reusable coffin and dumped in a mass grave.

Ten years after his burial, when the cemetery was being excavated, one of the diggers of Mozart's grave, Joseph Rothmayer, "acquired" Mozart's skull. He gave it to a friend Joseph Radschopf, who in turn gave it to his friend Jacob Hyrtl in 1842. When Hyrtl died in 1868, his brother Joseph inherited the skull. Joseph was a Viennese phrenologist. Upon his death, Joseph's wife held onto to the skull until her death in 1901. It was then bequeathed to the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg. In 1902 until the 1955, the skull was placed on public view in the Foundation's Museum.

Today, Mozart's skull (or at least somebody's) is no longer on display. But it remains in the Museum's collection.

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SWEDENBORG

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) famed scientist, theologian, educator, and mystic, spent nearly all of his 84 years in his native Sweden. But he died away from home on 29 March 1772 and was buried at the St. George of the East Church in London.

In 1908, the Swedish government sought to have Swedenborg's body reburied in the great cathedral in Uppsala. When his body was exhumed, it was discovered that his head was missing. An investigation revealed that Swedenborg's skull was stolen some 50 years after his death by a retired ship captain and amateur phrenologist. The skull had changed hands several times after that and finally found its way to a second hand shop in Wales. Swedenborg's family was informed of its whereabouts and they bought it for an unknown sum.

But the story does not end there. In March, 1978, Swedenborg's skull was auctioned at Sotheby's in London for $(US)3,200.

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GOYA

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was the most famous Spanish painter of his day and arguably one of the finest painters who ever lived. His "Saturn Devouring One of His Children" and "The Disasters of War" are classics. His "The Naked Maja" stimulated the imaginations of many a pubescent boy.

Goya spent nearly his entire life in his native Spain. He died on 16 April 1828 at age 82 during a brief stay in France. He was buried in the cemetery of Chartreuse in Bordeaux.

In 1899, the Spanish government obtained permission to transfer Goya's remains to Madrid for reburial with great fanfare at the Church of San Antonio de la Florida. The site was well chosen. Goya had painted the Church's beautiful frescoes a century before.

But when authorities opened his grave in Bordeaux, to the shock of all, it was discovered there was not just one, but two skeletons inside. What was worse, there was only one skull. Decomposition was such that there was no way of telling with certainty if the skull belonged to one body or the other.

After much discussion, it was decided that the skull and all of the bones would be carted off to Madrid and buried in the magnificently prepared sarcophagus marked "Francisco Goya" where they remain today. Yet whose bones are actually buried there? As Spanish authorities said at the time, "Let God sort them out".

Source: AFTER THE FUNERAL: THE POSTUMOUS ADVENTURES OF FAMOUS CORPSES by Edwin Murphy (The Citadel Press, 1995).