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The skull of the film director F. W. Murnau — best known for “Nosferatu,” his 1922 Expressionist take on Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” — has been stolen from a cemetery outside of Berlin.

Local news media reported the incident Tuesday, and the cemetery later confirmed the theft, according to Der Spiegel. The skull was stolen from a family gravesite in a cemetery in Stahnsdorf, which lies outside Berlin’s southwestern border.

F. W. Murnau was born in Germany in 1888 and is credited as one of the pioneers of German Expressionist cinema. His films include a take on Goethe’s “Faust” and “The Last Laugh,” an international hit that chronicled the trials of a hotel worker who is demoted because of his age. After spending years in Germany, the director moved to Hollywood, where he worked on several movies, including the 1927 classic “Sunrise,” which one reviewer called a “brilliant achievement.” Murnau died in 1931 from injuries sustained in a car crash.

According to German media reports, similar incidents have taken place at the director’s gravesite in the past and the cemetery is considering building a wall to protect his grave. A police investigation was underway.

The German tabloid B.Z. reported that investigators had found wax residue in the tomb and “could therefore not rule out occult” motives for the theft.