Step into a basement in East London and you’ll find a collection that seems to defy logic. Pickled animal parts, preserved body fragments, celebrity memorabilia, occult objects, and natural oddities fill every corner. The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities is one of the most bizarre museums in the world, and its displays have startled and fascinated visitors since it opened in 2015.
Preserved Remains and Macabre Relics
Among the museum’s most unsettling items are preserved human parts. A mummified human foot sits in a glass case, its leathery skin still intact. Nearby is a preserved foetus in a jar, displayed alongside taxidermied animals such as a two-headed lamb and a cycloptic kitten. Human hair is used to decorate Victorian mourning jewellery, while antique medical instruments reveal how the body was once studied and displayed.
Napoleon’s Hair and Celebrity Curios
The museum also houses fragments of famous lives. One case contains a lock of Napoleon Bonaparte’s hair, authenticated through provenance records and historic sales. Another display features items belonging to stars such as Mick Jagger and members of the Rolling Stones. Visitors can see the preserved excrement of pop star Amy Winehouse, stored in a jar and labelled, as well as other unusual memorabilia collected from auctions and private collections.
Magical Objects and Global Oddities
The shelves contain shrunken heads sourced from the Amazon, acquired through historic collections. There are ritual objects from various parts of the world, including African fetish figures, European witch bottles, and ceremonial items from Southeast Asia. These objects were gathered through dealers, donations, and private sales, each meticulously catalogued.
A Room Full of the Unexpected
The museum mixes natural history with cultural artifacts in a way rarely seen elsewhere. A dodo bone shares space with Victorian erotica, tribal masks, and preserved insects. Taxidermied animals perch among cabinets containing human skulls. Nothing is organised by theme, era, or geography. Visitors move through a maze of curiosities where each display case brings a new shock or fascination.
Founded by artist and collector Viktor Wynd, the museum occupies the lower floor of The Last Tuesday Society in Hackney, London. Since its opening, it has become both a tourist attraction and a research site for those interested in the history of collecting and display. Every item on view has been acquired through auctions, estate sales, or historic collections, making it one of the most eclectic museums currently open to the public.
Descend into a Hackney basement where a gold plated hippo skull shares a room with Elvis Presley’s hair, shrunken heads, and a two headed lamb.
This is Viktor Wynd’s Museum of Curiosities, part bar and museum, packed with labelled cases…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/Wesd2H6DXt
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) October 9, 2025