Museum Curators Are Sharing the Creepiest Objects in Their Collections

An executioner’s mask, a doll missing an eye, and more.

Art
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With a majority of art institutions closed across the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic, house-bound museum staffers are planning all sorts of ways to share art from their respective programming. For one, the Yorkshire Museum recently posted an open call on Twitter requesting for museum specialists to share images of the most unsettling objects in their collections using the hashtag #CreepiestObjects.

The Yorkshire Museum got the ball rolling by posting a photo of a hair bun that belonged to a Roman woman in the third or fourth centuries. The bun features a pair of pins sticking out of it. Museum experts followed up with equally weird ephemera including a blood-soaked doll missing an eye, a severed leg that transformed into a strange creature, a plague mask from the 16th century, and more.

The #CreepiestObject competition was part of the Yorkshire Museum’s weekly #CuratorBattle series. The project was created so that institutions can connect with each other during lockdown. Check out select objects below.

In other stories, take a look at this week’s list of art for your home.

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