Some people collect stamps, others collect newspaper clippings (perhaps even toenail clippings), and some even collect humans skulls and skins and penis castings. All collections must have a beginning. Perhaps they are sparked from an indescribable fascination, or a love for something unique or odd. Is it a peculiar form of classification, or even a means to siphon off from celebrity / idol hype and contemporary trends? There just may not be a way to fully comprehend the complexities of human wonder. Some examples below have become businesses or resources to like minded individuals with special interests. I allow the reader to question what is macabre. With some collections listed, controversy and lawsuits (in regards to proper ownership and various ethical dilemmas) abound to this day. In no particular order.
With over 100 skinned masterpieces of the tattooed deceased variety, you won’t see any new age “Celtic/tribal” bands or Warner Bros. cartoons here. Dr Katsunari Fukushi’s full body inked skins are traditional Japanese “tebori” (hand-applied). With a goal to preserve and study, Fukushi’s collection includes one of a kind Yakuza skins dating as far back as the 1920’s. They can be viewed, on request, at the University of Tokyo.
The “Bone Palace” of Ray Bandar is home to 7000 skulls. The only place free of this biologist’s collection is in the bedroom (at his wife’s demand). 79 year old Bender has been skull and bone collecting for more than 50 years! That’s dedication! With official permits in hand, he has been able to get his skulls from virtually anywhere around the globe. His specimens come from zoos, beaches, and even off the road.
Dr. Stanley B. Burns Collection has a most revered historical photographic collection, with operating room images, depictions of diseases and the effects of war on the body, post mortem photos and malformations or anomalies, along with criminality behaviors depicted in public lynching and executions. It is the largest of it’s kind in the US, with more than 60,000 images.
Peter the Great’s “Kunstkammer” is the result of 15 years of collecting the oddities and the rarities of Russia and the world, before making it available to the public in 1719. Animals with two heads or multiple legs or pickled punks are among Frederik Ruysch’s amazing anatomical dioramas (which included fetal skeletons surrounded by “trees” of their own preserved circulatory systems) and in the early days of the museum; live “freaks” were on display.
Interested in obtaining a true likeness of great men, Laurence Hutton (1843-1904) set out to acquire death masks of historical or well-known figures. Some in the collection include Napoleon, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Goethe, Newton and Charles XII who was killed in battle (the bullet’s entry is visible above his right brow). Today the Hutton collection is housed at Princeton University and is available for viewing online.
What began in 1968, as a way to “meet awesome men” and to fulfill a college assignment, led to Cynthia Plaster Caster casting famous (and not so famous) penises. Rock stars and road manager’s make up most of her subjects. In the early days, Cynthia’s casting partner would permit the appropriate oral contact - in order to make a good impression. More recently she has included women in her collection. Jimmy Hendrix, Jello Biafra, and Karen O are among her better known donors.
While the “killer clown”, John Wayne Gacy, was spending the rest of his life in jail, Rick Staton became his exclusive art dealer, becoming one of the first of America’s top collectors of murderabillia. Some well known “murderabillia” buyers include painter, Joe Coleman, Lux Interior and Poison Ivy from The Cramps and shock rock performer Marilyn Manson. The Son Of Sam Law does not allow a killer to profit from his crimes (i.e.: movies or books), but murderabillia has become an internet phenomenon and new laws have been difficult to pass, as first amendment rights are contested, so buying and selling is likely to continue. One proposal is the “Stop The Sale Of Murderabillia To Protect The Dignity Of Crime Victims Act”.
They can be sold down to the follicle and by the inch! Lincoln, Kennedy, Monroe, Einstein, Lennon and Presley are among John Reznikoff’s hair reps. When Britney shaved her head, guess who was super eager to get her locks? Reznikoff became more widely known for his small donation of Beethoven’s hair to LifeGem, a memorial service company that made three synthetic diamonds from the resulting carbon.
For more than a year, General Horatio Gordon Robley (1840–1930) made detailed drawings, from life, of the early Maori (New Zealand’s earliest settlers) and their face and body tattoos. He also collected as many of their heads that he could, seeing them as works of art. When later searching for a buyer, the New Zealand government turned him down and all but the best five ended up in New York’s American Museum of Natural History. Over more recent years, New Zealand has been trying to get Robeley’s collection back, (along with other moko heads in different institutions), with varying success.
Walter Potter (1835-1918), a self taught taxidermist, created strange tableaux of small dead animals, that he arranged in unnatural or humanlike situations. These include gambling rats being caught off guard in a raid, a couple of robins surrounding a tiny coffin in a funeral procession, and a yard filled with exercising toads. The collection was unfortunately broken up and sold at auction to different buyers in 2003.
Contributor: Diogenes
译文:
十大恐怖的收藏品
有些人收集邮票，有些人收集剪报（甚至是脚趾甲的剪下物），还有些人甚至在收集人体的头盖骨，人皮和阴茎铸造物。所有的收集都必须有个开始。可能他们是被一种莫名其妙的魔力或因某些独特而古怪的爱好所鼓舞。这是一种分类奇特的形式，或者是一种从这幻想物，名声和现代流行趋势中允吸的一种手段呢？这并不是完全理解人类奇迹复杂性的一种方法。以下所举例子中提到的已经从商业资源变成具有特殊兴趣的个人所有。关于读者所问的什么才是可怕的收集品的问题我已考虑。一些所列出的具有争议和控诉的（有关固有所有权和不同名族困境）收集品到今天在没有特殊明确的顺序下大量出现。
10 纹身
已有超过100种在各类死人皮肤上纹身的杰作，你不会看见任何一个新的时代有凯尔特人及其部落的乐队。在这里要提到的是卡通漫画。Dr katsunari Fukushi所描绘的整个身体皮肤是传统的日本小鼓。带着要保护和研究的目的，他的收藏品包括可追溯到19世纪20年代的一种叫Yakuza的皮肤。它们因东京大学的需要而已被考虑。
9 骨骼
有骨骼之宫之称的雷家就收有7000种头盖骨。只有卧室才是生物学家的收藏较自由丰富的地方（按照他妻子的要求）。79岁的班德收藏头盖骨和骨骼已超过50年！真是将毕生贡献于此啊！由于现在有官方的许可，他已经能从全球各个地方收集得到头盖骨。他的标本一般来自动物园，海滩甚至是
8 医学照片
Dr. Stanley B. Burns的收藏已经在历史上照相的收集中获得了很高的崇敬，随着手术室，病历，战争对人类的影响，照片中所描绘的具有反常和畸形的犯罪人员都已在公众面前处以死刑或私刑。这在美国历史上规模最大的一次。
7 畸形事物
彼得大帝建造的“人类学和民族学博物馆”是经过15年对俄国和世界各地奇人怪事的收集的成果。博物馆于1719年对公众开放.两头与多足或是pickled punks（字面意思是腌制的火绒？朽木？男同性恋者？专业用语）存在于Frederik Ruysch（荷兰生物＼解剖学家）令人吃惊的解剖透视画馆（其中包括被像树一般的维持的循环系统包围着的胎儿骨骼)和早期的博物馆中。保留着的”怪诞“都陈列着。
6 死亡面具
基于对获得伟人真实面貌的兴趣，Laurence Hutton开始收集历史人物或者名人的死后所制成的面型。收藏中包括了拿破仑，贝多芬，莎士比亚，歌德，牛顿和死于战斗中查尔斯十二世（弹口可见于他的左额头）。如今，Hutton的收藏存放于普林斯顿大学，可以网上参观.
5 生殖器官石膏模型
从1968年起，作为“结识优秀人物”的途径，同时也是为了 完成一份大学作业，被称为“辛西娅石膏连铸机”的辛西娅开 始铸就名人的（以及一些不是那么有名的）阳物。其中摇 滚明星和道路经理人等组成了她大部分的作品。早些时候 ，辛西娅的铸造伙伴会做一个适当的口头协议——为了相 互之间留下一个好印象。最近她开始将女性的生殖器官模 型也加入到自己的收藏品行列中。吉米·亨德里克斯 （Jimmy Hendrix),杰乐·比弗拉（Jello Biafra),凯伦·欧 （Karen O）都在她更为知名的捐赠人之列。
4 谋杀者藏品
当“小丑杀手”约翰·韦恩·盖西(John Wayne Gacy）将在监狱 里度过他的余生时，里克·斯特顿(Rick Staton）作为他唯一 的艺术品经销商，成为美国第一批顶级的谋杀者藏品收藏 者之一。一些知名的谋杀者藏品买家包括画家乔·科尔曼 （Joe Coleman)，来自乐队The Cramps的卢克斯·因特里奥 （Lux Interior), 波森·艾维（Poison Ivy)以及视觉系摇滚歌手 玛丽莲·曼森(Marilyn Mason)。山姆之子法不允许一个杀手 从他的犯罪行为中获利（例如电影或者书籍），但是谋杀 者藏品已经在因特网上风靡；与此同时，新的法律因为第 一修正案受到争议而一时很难通过，所以买卖谋杀者藏品 的行为很有可能继续。有一个提议是“停止谋杀者藏品买卖 以保护那些罪行受害者的尊严
3 头发收藏
他们能以英寸为单位出售！林肯，肯尼迪，梦露，爱因斯坦，列侬以及普莱斯里等人的头发都在约翰·列兹尼科夫（John Reznikoff)的藏品名录之列。当布兰妮剃光她的头发，猜猜是谁最希望得到其中一缕？答案是列兹尼科夫，他变得更加为人所熟知是因为他给生命宝石纪念公司捐赠了贝多芬的头发，后者是一家提供纪念服务的公司，曾用头发提取的碳元素制造过三颗人工钻石。
2 已保藏的面具
General Horatio Gordon Robley (1840–1930）多年来从早期的生活中创作了很多较细腻的作品。他也竭尽所有能力去收集他们的头颅(变态?)，把它们当成艺术作品。当随后在寻找买家时，新西南政府否决了他的做法并将除了最好的5个作品以外的其它所有作品放进了纽约的美国自然历史博物馆。在近些年，新西南已经尝试将Robeley的收藏回收（其中还包括在不同制度/团体中的其它moko heads）,均取得不同程度的成功。
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Walter Potter (1835--1918)一位自学成才的（动物标本）剥制师，创造出一种奇特的由死去的小动物为材料制成的静态画面。其中包括一对环绕在一个在很长送殡队伍灵柩中的知更鸟等。很不幸这些收藏品已被破坏或者在2003年已拍卖给各行业的商人。