Beethoven and Marie Curie compete with birds to appear on new euro notes

European Central Bank picks two themes for redesign submissions: ‘iconic personalities’ or rivers and birds

He was a master of notes, and now the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven could be one of the faces of the redesigned euro, the first time the EU currency’s banknotes have been revamped.

In a process that started in 2021 and has already involved a public inquiry and two multidisciplinary advisory groups, the European Central Bank (ECB) has selected two themes for the redesign.

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‘Miracle find’: rare Don Quixote and short stories could sell for €900k

Sotheby’s describes 17th-century Cervantes editions as a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity for collectors

One day in the early 1930s, a young Bolivian diplomat named Jorge Ortiz Linares walked into the illustrious Maggs Bros bookshop in London to ask if they might have a particularly fine edition of Don Quixote for sale.

But even for Ortiz Linares – a dedicated bibliophile who also happened to be the son-in-law of Simón Patiño, the Bolivian tin magnate nicknamed the Andean Rockefeller – the answer was a polite no.

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