Pirate’s Head

A museum in Germany has offered a reward of thousands of euros for a “nail-pierced skull” thought to be the head of legendary pirate Klaus Stoertebeker stolen from it in early January. “’We are launching an appeal for the head,’ said the director of the Hamburg History Museum, Lisa Kosok, without saying precisely how much was on offer. The cranium, thought to be about 600 years old, was spirited away on January 9 in mysterious circumstances from its exhibition case. Ms Kosok said the theft could be a ‘bad joke’ or the culprit could be a collector with an interest in pirates. ‘There are many possibilities. We are following up on a number of leads,’ she said. The skull, impaled by a large rusty nail, was discovered in 1878 during construction for a warehouse district in an area where pirates used to be beheaded and their heads displayed on spikes as a grisly warning.”