Rembrandt's skull smashed on television?

On this technical list I subscribe too, there was recently a thread of dump computer mistakes. Then someone from the Netherlands chimed in with this anecdote:


And another embarassing moment for an archaeologist in Amsterdam.

He was doing some digging in one of the churches in Holland where a lot
of celebrities were buried. Apparently he dug up the grave of Rembrandt
van Rijn, the famous Dutch painter

While being interviewed by a television crew, he held up a skull
claiming it to be Rembrandt's skull. Suddenly and with a loud "OOOPPSS",
he dropped the skull and it fell into a thousand pieces. Spoakesmen
later said it was not the skull of Rembrandt, but of his brother, but no
one believed them.


Has anyone else ever heard this story?

------------------
Jacques Kilchoer
Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.

Was Rembrandt's brother's name Yorick, by any chance?

Which part are you asking about if the whole thing at all ever happened or if it was just his brothers skull. How long ago was this said to have happened cuz it seems like it would be a pretty big meadia hype and we would have heard about it by now. You'd also think that by the time they figured out whose skull it was they wouldn't just let someone swing it around in the air like that.

------------------
Formerly known as Nec3f on the AOL SDMB

Was Rembrandt's brother's name Yorick, by any chance?


Alas! I don't know his name.


Which part are you asking about if the whole thing at all ever happened or if it was just his brothers skull. How long ago was this said to have happened cuz it seems like it would be a pretty big meadia hype and we would have heard about it by now.


I'm asking if the whole thing ever happened. I would agree with you in your comment that this would not be an obscure, little-known new item. There was no statement as to when this event was to have occurred. It sounds like an urban legend to me.

------------------
Jacques Kilchoer
Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.

Same here, I vote UL.

Reminds me of Walt Whitman's brain; many years ago, at a university or such, it got dropped on the floor and slopped into a hundred pieces. It ended up getting rinsed down a floor drain. Maybe that (real) incident became the source for stories like that.

Also reminds me of the Monty Python Reunion concert, where they "accidentally" spilled "Graham Chapman's ashes" all over the stage, making them sneeze etc.