Dutch artist, Vincent van Gogh did not cut his ear off as previously thought.  in recent studies of van Gogh’s “Sunflower” paintings, art historians have discovered sunflower pollen mixed into the artists pigments along with nostril mucus (a.k.a. snot), suggesting the artist’s extreme allergy to the botanical weed. Evidence in the artist’s studio points to the artist forcefully sneezing his ear off by holding the sneeze in his nose.  Medically this is known to have happened throughout the Netherland region in the late nineteenth century.  He did, however, mail his blown off ear to his girlfriend.  That part of the story is true.

PHact or PHib ?  You decide.