The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History facts for kids

The interior of the Viktor Wynd Museum

The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History is a unique museum located in Hackney Central, a part of London Borough of Hackney. It's found on Mare Street in what used to be a call centre. This special place is run by Viktor Wynd and is part of a group called The Last Tuesday Society. It was able to open in 2015 thanks to people who helped fund it through a website called Kickstarter.

What Can You See at the Museum?

The Viktor Wynd Museum is filled with many interesting and unusual items. It's like a modern-day "cabinet of curiosities," which were collections of strange and wonderful objects that people used to gather long ago.

Unusual Collections

The museum has a wide variety of collections that might surprise you:

• Curiosities: You can find classic oddities like hairballs and even a two headed lamb. There's also a famous Fiji mermaid, which is a creature made to look like a mermaid but is actually a hoax.
• Art: The museum displays art from many different centuries. It has the largest public collection of works by Austin Osman Spare. It is also believed to have the biggest collection in the country of art by Leonora Carrington, a famous Anglo-Mexican surrealist artist.
• Natural History: This part of the museum focuses on nature. You can see rare items like dodo bones and feathers from birds that are now extinct. There are also many examples of taxidermy, which is the art of preserving animal bodies, and the skeleton of a giant anteater.
• Human History: The museum also includes some human remains, such as shrunken heads and tribal skulls. It features tribal art collected by Viktor Wynd himself during his travels in The Congo and New Guinea. You can also see fossils and old scientific and medical tools.
• The Dandy Section: This area is dedicated to the "Dandy," a term for a very stylish and fashionable person. It includes drawings and old documents related to Stephen Tennant, a well-known Dandy.

The items in the museum are very valuable, with their total worth insured for a large amount of money. The museum is usually open for everyone to visit, but sometimes it is rented out for private events.

Special Exhibitions

The museum often hosts special art shows featuring different artists. Some of the artists whose works have been displayed include Alasdair Gray, Mervyn Peake, Gunter Grass, Robin Ironside, and various English Surrealist artists. These exhibitions offer a chance to see unique and thought-provoking art.