The most unusual museums in the world

Published on : 21 May 20205 min reading time

When we think of museums, we can directly imagine beautiful buildings adorned with the most beautiful classical and contemporary masterpieces. However, not all of them are so traditional… Indeed, there is everything from the most original and impressive to the most frightening and amusing. Artsper offers you a selection of the most unusual museums in the world.

El Dorado, the gold museum

The Gold Museum presents visitors with gold coins from each of the indigenous cultures before the arrival of the Spaniards. There are more than 35,000 gold masterpieces that bear witness to their technical prowess. In addition, there are nearly 30,000 pieces of ceramics, stone, shells, bone and textiles. The circuit between these mythical pieces is organized in 5 rooms: metalworking, people and gold in pre-Hispanic Colombia, cosmology and symbolism, offerings and exploration.

The Underwater Museum

The Underwater Museum is a non-profit organization promoting art and its conservation. There are four unusual ways to visit the museum: scuba diving, snorkeling, glass-bottomed boat and personalized tour. In total there are almost 400 sculptures made of alkaline cement, fibreglass and various resistant and environmentally friendly substances. Moreover, the museum aims to become over the years an eco-system colonized by corals and fishes, thanks to imaginations for the development of an “artificial reef”.

Museum of Bad Art

This museum honors all bad, failed, “ugly” art. The MOBA (Museum of Bad Art) therefore aims to “collect and exhibit the worst art”. The idea comes from Scott Wilson, an American antique dealer who, finding the painting Lucy in the field with flowers in the street, decided to start a collection of the worst failed works. Today there are about sixty works “too bad to be ignored”.

Museum of Broken Relationships

The Museum of Broken Relations aims to share our heartbreaking stories and the symbolic assets of our broken relationships. It is an opportunity for visitors from all over the world to discover emotions and memories embodied in objects and told through stories. Ultimately, the goal is to realize how different people and their relationships are, but also, when it comes to broken relationships, how much we share the same feelings.

Museum of Torture

This museum brings together all the ancient instruments of torture that bear witness to human cruelty. Many utensils are grouped together in a maze of dark rooms, leaving visitors free to touch them. One finds there torture objects known to all, such as guillotines, but also the most mysterious and terrifying ones, such as the Virgin of Nuremberg…

Vent Haven Museum, Ventriloquism Museum

The museum’s collection includes more than 900 ventriloquist dolls, each with a story. This is why the museum can only be discovered in private and guided tours of 45 to 90 minutes. The creator of the museum, W.S. Berger spent 40 years building up his personal collection of photos, dolls, scenarios, memorabilia, posters and recordings from the world of ventriloquism.

Museum of Rāmen

This museum is completely dedicated to rāmen, this Japanese dish made of noodles bathed in a meat or fish broth. The museum is divided into 4 parts. First of all, the gallery where the “rāmen moments” are exhibited, and where you can learn more about the typical Japanese dish. Then, the souvenir shop, where you can bring back rāmen from all over Japan. And finally, an old 1950’s village in Tokyo, where a great restaurant is located, and right next to it, Dagashi-ya on Yu-yake Shoten, the shopping street.

Espionage Museum

The spy museum is located in Washington DC, capital of the United States but also spies. There are more than 7000 spy objects that tell the story of this mysterious profession through time. This museum plunges us into the problems of current and secret CIA espionage. Get ready to find the most famous gadgets such as the Aston Martin DB5 of James Bond, as well as the most mysterious ones such as a pistol camouflaged in lipstick …

Dog Collar Museum

This English museum honours dog collars, this object with multiple functions, to identify but also to embellish your dog. The collection includes 100 collars that were collected by the Irish medieval scholar John Hunt and his wife, Gertrude. Enlarged by the Leeds Castle Foundation, the collection includes pieces covering the history from the Middle Ages to the Victorian era. You will find all types of necklaces, provided with spikes resembling instruments of torture or decorated with the family coat of arms…

Hair Museum

This museum of the strangest is located under a gallery of ceramics and pottery. There is a collection of 16,000 hair samples from women donated especially for the place. It is thanks to these numerous “donations” that the museum is now listed in the Guinness Book of Records. If you donate your hair, a winner is chosen twice a year by a visitor. To be won: an all-expenses paid week in Cappadocia including free pottery classes .

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