the Travel Enthusiast
- 29 Jul
The best wax museums in the world
photo by Abhijeet Rane
Sculptors and painters have been obsessed for ages with the representation of human form as accurately as possible, but no form of art has ever come closer to copying the human body as the craft of wax sculpture creators. If you’ve seen a wax statue even if only in a picture, you were probably struck by how closely they resemble the people they were modeled on.
Wax museums have been around since the end of the 18th century, when artist Marie Tussaud started touring Europe with her statues. So if you want to see the wax replica of some past or present celebrity whom you’d like to meet, here are the best wax museums in the world.
Madame Tussauds, London, UK
The wax museum that started it all, the original Madame Tussauds, can be found in London. Marie Tussaud, a former housekeeper who learned her art from her employer, started making wax models of the celebrities of her time (the first statue she made was of Voltaire) and as her fame grew, she started touring the company with her statues. She opened a museum in 1835 on Baker Street, London, and in 1884 the museum moved to Marylebone Street where it is found today.
Hollywood Wax Museum, Los Angeles, USA
Any tourist who visits Hollywood in hopes of laying eyes on a celebrity or two can make sure they spot a star at the HOllywood Wax Museum, located at the heart of Hollywood’s tourist district. The museum opened in 1965, and it is dedicated solely to celebrities, including fictional ones.
Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco
This San Francisco museum has over 270 statues on display, some of them imported from London but many of them created by the museum’s resident wax sculptor. The museum features the usual selection of celebrities, plus figures from famous paintings, Kig Tut, several dictators and even a young Bill Gates.
Siddhagiri Gramjivan Museum, Kolhapur, India
Siddhagiri Gramjivan Museum is surprisingly little known, considering that it has some amazing displays. The museum is concerned with exhibiting scenes from village life, with quiet domestic scenes depicted perfectly. The countryside surrounding the museum is just as spellbinding as the exhibits.
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The Musée Conti Wax Museum is one of the most intriguing museums in the US, simply because it is a museum showcasing the history of an intriguing city. The museum tells the history of New Orleans through the statues of its most important figures, and it also has a Haunted House.
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