‘Paganini’s body was buried and re-buried no less than nine times’ - From the archive: November 1932

November 1932

Violinist and Paganini expert Julius Siber gives some biographical notes on the ‘demon violinist’ to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth

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Though barely ninety years have elapsed since the death of Paganini, he has already become somewhat of a legendary figure. It is, in any event, a fact that he was one of the most remarkable and mysterious personalities of all times. Even in death he was fated to find no rest. His body was buried and re-buried no less than nine times. When he died, in 1840, the Bishop of Nice forbade consecrated burial, because no baptism certificate could be found. The Pope permitted the burial, but shortly afterwards it was again prohibited, the body was placed in a vault, then in a hospital, next it was buried near the sea, then again in Parma. It will now again, perhaps, be interred a tenth time, as Mussolini contemplates having the body conveyed to Genoa, his birth-place…

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