Inside the museum that immortalises broken relationships

The museum has been inundated with submissions from people donating relics from previous relationships

Rachel Hosie
Sunday 08 January 2017 11:03 GMT
Comments

Relationship break-ups often result in mementos, be they funny, sad or just plain bizarre.

A museum in Croatia, however, has been championing those relics and the stories behind them for the past six years - The Museum of Broken Relationships is the most popular museum in Zagreb and has this year spawned a sister museum in Los Angeles.

Inside the museum, visitors find the mementos of previous relationships donated by people all over the world.

It started out as a therapeutic project for two artists, Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić, after the break-up of their four-year relationship, and the museum is now globally crowd-sourced.

The museum of incredibly varied items draws people from all over the world. Most of the stories that accompany the mementos are thought-provoking, some are heartbreaking and others are just hilarious.

“It's nice to get some idea of what other people have to struggle with and that you're not the only one feeling down when things seem dark,” wrote one visitor in an online review. “You get a better perspective on your own past, current and even future romantic experiences.”

The collection on display changes, but over the years the museum has featured :

  • An unopened sweetie G-string sent to a woman by her boyfriend of four years just before he cheated on her with her colleague and broke up with her over email.
  • Plaster breasts given to a woman by her boyfriend who wanted her to wear them during sex. She, quite rightly, broke up with him.
  • A can of ‘love incense’, for which the description simply reads: “Doesn’t work”.
The plaster breasts

Anyone in the world can send in an item - all you have to do is fill in a form and send it off. The museum is now so inundated with submissions though that they can only display about 15% of what they’re sent.

There’s also a virtual collection for those too attached to their relic to part with it.

The director of the LA Museum of Broken Relationships says he thought the city was an ideal location because its inhabitants are generally very open: “People come here with these amazing dreams and goals and it's also a land of crushing defeat.

“Not all of these things work out and everyone's like, 'Los Angeles is perfect',” he explained to NPR.

No relationship is perfect, and whether you think immortalising a memento is therapeutic or unhealthy, it’s clearly a popular thing to do.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in