- The most mysterious museum in the world
- The most mysterious picture
- The most unusual mechanism ever created
Museums always attract with their mystery and spiritual connection with history. Works of art from different eras and trends, brilliant authors, ancient relics and still unsolved secrets attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Don Wildman, host of the Travel Channel's Museum Mysteries, explores the mysterious relics of cultural and historical heritage. In search of extraordinary stories, he travels around the world to create a unique video tour of the most interesting and fascinating places on the planet. In the show "Museum Mysteries" he will visit famous museums in America, try to uncover historical secrets and see with his own eyes the objects that the whole world is talking about! And in December Don will continue his fascinating journey within the framework of the new show "Monumental Secrets", travel to Europe and acquaint viewers with the history and legends of the most amazing monuments located in London, Berlin and Paris. We invite you to go on an educational journey with Don and learn about the most mysterious museums and ancient exhibits, the secrets of which have not yet been solved.
The most mysterious museum in the world
The Louvre is certainly not only one of the most famous museums in the world, but also one of the most mysterious. Its collection includes exhibits from the dawn of ancient civilizations and delights tourists from all over the world. Until now, no one knows for certain where the name of the museum came from. According to one version, it arose from the ancient Saxon word "lower" - "fortress", according to the other, it is somehow connected with the word "loup" - "wolf", and this is not surprising, because the Louvre was built on the swamps, which were then literally filled wolves. Another mystery of the museum is the sculpture of the Venus de Milo exhibited here. Historians are still wondering who is the author of this work of art and why the sculpture has no hands? There is an opinion that the monument could originally have been created without these body parts, on the other hand, perhaps the marble goddess was holding something valuable in her hands … Some researchers argue that there was a mirror in her hands, others believe that it was a veil with which she covered herself. Recently, the most popular story is about the French envoy to Greece, who allegedly managed to solve this mystery. He visited the Buttoni family, whose head at one time found Venus. His already elderly son replied that Venus had an apple in her hands!
This assumption made a real sensation: the unusual turn of Venus's shoulders, the difficult posture did not fit at all with an apple in his hands. In addition, for such a complex Greek statue, the apple would have more biblical character.
More than one expedition was equipped to the island where the goddess was found, but the search did not yield anything and no hands were found there. On the other hand, this incredible story has given free rein and imagination to activists who create various hand models and send them to the Louvre. Sometimes museum workers even arrange a photo display of Venus with hands, but the surprising thing is that none of the hand models still fit this statue.
The most mysterious picture
"Crying Boy" is perhaps not only one of the most mysterious, but also one of the most famous paintings in the world. The author of this masterpiece is the Spanish artist Giovanni Bragolin. At first glance, the picture is absolutely harmless, it depicts a little boy in tears. On closer inspection, you can see that the boy does not look very upset or offended, but there is anger in his eyes. There is a legend that the boy's father (who is also the author of the portrait), trying to achieve brightness, vitality, real emotions and naturalness of the canvas, lit matches in the face of the baby, while the boy was afraid of fire to death. The kid cried, and his father painted his emotions on canvas. Once the child could not stand it and shouted at his father in fear: "You yourself burn!" A month later, the boy died of pneumonia, and soon the artist's body was found in his own burnt house next to a painting miraculously escaped from the fire. This is where the sad story could have ended, if in 1985 the British newspapers didn’t leave the statements that firefighters found reproductions of The Crying Boy in almost every burned-down room, and the most surprising thing was that the fire didn’t even damage them. Until now, just looking at the picture becomes uncomfortable.
The most unusual mechanism ever created
In the small village of Kag in Austria, there is a real work of art, which is called the "World Machine". In 1958, Franz Gzelmann, the son of a poor farmer, saw a large model of the atom at the Brussels World Exhibition. The iron sculpture "Atomium" immediately became a symbol of the peaceful use of atomic energy and literally bewitched Franz. He acquired a model of a sculpture of such an atom and conceived his own project, to which he eventually devoted 23 years of his life, using scrap metal, improvised pieces of iron and parts from the second-hand markets as a material.
Franz built his strange contraption around the atomic model, adding bells, clocks, fans, conveyor belts, whistles, chains, and even a xylophone. His project was eventually completed, the structure 6 m long and 3 m high was a complex mechanical system, consisting of a variety of components. Even today, this design is capable of capturing the imagination of anyone, on the other hand, it can be called the strangest mechanism ever created in the world. The fact is that no one knows what this car was intended for, according to the author's idea! He hid his creation from his family until it was almost completely finished, and then he suddenly died without revealing the secret of the purpose of the "World Machine". Parts of this design run on 25 electric motors and perform different kinetic processes: jitter, sway, rotation, and also reproduce light and sound effects. Currently, there are many theories as to why Gzelmann devoted the best years of his life to building this crazy machine. Although the exact answers to the questions have not yet been found, the World Machine is still one of the strangest projects in the history of mankind. I would like to believe that with the help of this mechanism, Franz wanted to show and open the most intimate and hidden doors of the human soul.
