Did someone steal Johann Strauss’ teeth?

The teeth of Johann Strauss Jr and Johannes Brahms were possibly stolen from their graves according to a weird news report on AFP. The events date back to 2008 and were not pursued, yet the police have a Slovakian suspect.

Obviously, this report opens more questions than it answers: what exactly happened? Why did the police not press charges? Is there a market for composers’ teeth or is this the work of a fetishist?

Video of Strauss break-in

According to Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Viennese police were tipped off when a video of the break-in and robberies were posted on a website by the author of the crime, who claimed to be creating a museum. IBTimes.com named the man as Ondrej Jajcaj Jr who was not hard to identify given that he posted videos of himself, claiming to be the “freedom dentist”.

Several videos show him wandering around the graveyard commenting on the various graves and their dental guests. He also shows a series of objects apparently stolen from the graves, including what he claims are the teeth of Johann Strauss Jr and the dentures of Johannes Brahms. The video also lingers on the grave of Beethoven, although it’s not clear if the grave was also disturbed. Several of the graves in the video had clearly been tampered with at some stage.

Jajcaj claims to have items stolen from many graves in Vienna and risks up to 10 years in jail.

All in all, weird!