When we look at any art work whether at a museum or gallery or hanging on someone’s wall, do we ever question whether the artist attributed to it actually painted the work? Who is to say that the series of Monet paintings at the Art Institute in Chicago were actually painted by Claude Monet? What about any cultural heritage or historical artifacts that we look at in museums? For example, if Sue the dinosaur truly a relic from ages ago or could it be a fake?

Of course, there are authentication procedures for art and historical objects. Much akin to DNA testing in humans and animals, there is a strict science to not only identifying or confirming the true age of an object, but to place it properly within its geographic and historical setting. But what happens when scientists really cannot be sure about an object’s history or even authenticity? For example, how can we test the familial lineage of someone to say, Jesus, if we have no DNA evidence of him?

Recently,officials in Sydney, Australia have found what they believe is a clipping of hair taken from Napoleon Bonaparte on his deathbed. The clippings were mysteriously found in Sydney’s Town Hall after the 130-year old building was cleaned out.

The clipping of hair is a tiny bundle of light-brown hairs that were accompanied with a letter but no one knows when, why or how they were received or how they arrived at the Town Hall.

One of the museum’s curators has said: “We don’t know how it got here. But it doesn’t look like it is the sort of thing that someone would fake.”

Still, I would not dismiss the possibility so quickly. DNA tests are currently being considered for the lock of hair.

As to the letter that accompanies the hair, Scotsman Ned Todd, the purported author, writes that an unnamed woman gave it to him. The woman claimed that her brother, Major William Crockat, snipped the hair from Napoleon’s dead body.  

Hearsay, much?

I would suggest the DNA tests should commence immediately, especially before the museum puts the hair on display and begins to charge an admission fee to see them.