Lock of Mozart’s hair set to fetch £10k

Strands of hair belonging to two master composers are expected to fetch at least £12,000 (€16,000) when they go under the hammer.

A lock of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s fair hair has been valued at an estimated £10,000 by Sotheby’s auction house, while a small lock of Ludwig van Beethoven’s barnet could reach £2,000 in a separate lot which also includes a printed invitation to the German’s funeral.

Contained in a 19th-century gilt locket, the snip of the Austrian maestro’s mane passed from his widow Contanze to the German conductor Karl Anschutz before it was given to the English composer Arthur Sommervell, whose descendent now owns the keepsake.