Kenneth Glad
Museums usually pride themselves on showing off the strange. That kind of preservation comes with the territory. But even the most eccentric archivists eventually find a boundary they refuse to cross.
A prominent London venue, The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History has officially removed a controversial display item tied to Russell Brand. Curator Viktor Wynd pulled a purported sample of the disgraced celebrity’s pubic hair from public view.
The decision followed the former star’s recent prison sentencing for a string of sexual crimes. Wynd made his disgust clear in an interview with Variety.
“I took them straight off display and have no desire to hear his name again,” the collector told the outlet. He added that the convicted actor “has no place in my museum of horrors.”
He also offered a sharp critique of his own venue: “My museum is full of disgusting things but even I have limits.”
Ten years behind bars
The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History
The exhibit change happens just days after a judge at Southwark Crown Court handed down a major penalty. Jurors finished a high-profile trial that ended with a prison term of ten years and six months for the 51-year-old comedian.
The legal proceedings examined a period between 2004 and 2009. That era marked the height of the entertainer’s transatlantic television success.
In the end, the court established guilt on three sexual assault charges and one count of rape across four victims. Jurors cleared him on two other rape allegations. They also acquitted him of one attempted indecent assault charge.
Now, the museum plans to fill the vacant space with something positive. Variety noted that Wynd wants to install a memorial plate tied to an Instagram fundraiser for Rape Crisis.
Bizarre museum history
The discarded hair had been a staple of the Hackney venue for more than ten years. Its origins were always murky. A 2016 write-up claimed it arrived via post with an explanatory letter.
An unnamed woman reportedly mailed the tuft to the gallery. She alleged she groomed the actor at a Camden Town barbershop. Nobody ever authenticated the bizarre souvenir.
Wynd launched his Mare Street destination in 2014. He designed the venue to celebrate the macabre. Today, the eclectic space features a cocktail bar alongside taxidermy mutants, extinct bird skeletons, and supposedly a lock of Elvis Presley’s hair.
Yet even in a room dedicated to the grotesque, the curator felt this specific relic had completely lost its appeal.
