Russell Brand's Pubic Hair Pulled From London Museum After Rape Conviction

A London museum has removed Russell Brand's pubic hair from display following his rape conviction. Viktor Wynd, collector and founder of the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History in Hackney, confirmed the removal on Wednesday.

"I took them straight off display and have no desire to hear his name again – he has no place in my museum of horrors," Wynd told Variety.

That's a verdict of sorts. In a building stocked with shrunken heads, Brand no longer makes the cut.

What happened in court?

Brand, 51, was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison at London's Southwark Crown Court on Monday, Nov. 9. A jury found the former comedian and actor guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving four women. The offenses took place between 2004 and 2009, during Brand's rise to fame in British television and Hollywood.

The court acquitted him of two additional rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.

How did the hair get there?

The artifact had hung among the museum's more notorious items for over a decade. According to a 2016 account of the museum, a woman sent the hair to Wynd, claiming she had shaved Brand at a Camden Town salon. She attached a handwritten letter explaining that she thought the collector would appreciate the unusual souvenir.

The hair's authenticity has never been independently verified. That detail now seems beside the point.

What is the museum exactly?

Wynd opened the museum in 2014 on Mare Street in Hackney. It's modeled on the Wunderkammer (the Renaissance cabinet of curiosities, a proto-museum mixing natural specimens with oddities). Its holdings include:

• Shrunken heads
• Two-headed animals
• Dodo bones
• Occult objects
• A lock of Elvis Presley's hair

The venue also runs an absinthe parlour and cocktail bar, operated by the Last Tuesday Society.

Wynd's line about his "museum of horrors" lands as dark comedy, which suits the house style. Still, the removal signals how quickly condemned celebrity memorabilia turns from curiosity to liability. Museums of the strange survive on shock; even they draw lines.