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All New Zealand Dunedin Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery

Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery

Three rooms of bones, curios, and one artist's collection of natural artifacts create this intriguing museum.

Dunedin, New Zealand

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Bruce Mahalski
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A bone sculpture by Bruce Mahalski.   The Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery / Atlas Obscura User
The Mammal Room in the Dunedin Museum of Natural History.   The Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery / Atlas Obscura User
Big skulls.   The Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery / Atlas Obscura User
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About

New Zealand artist Bruce Mahalski's dream was always to work in a museum, so finally he just created one for himself. The Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery is a tiny collection of curios that attempt to show off the beauty of bones and the bizarre.   

Spread over three rooms of an old central city villa, the museum contains a collection of skulls, bones, biological curiosities, ethnological art, and unusual cultural and paranormal artifacts which the artist has collected over a lifetime. There's also a gallery featuring the artist's trademark textural bone sculptures and paintings of animals on canvas.

Most of the things in the little museum have been personally picked up or kindly donated by the artist's friends and colleagues. Nearly everything in the museum has some connection with the world of nature, but there are also a few other interesting things that just seem to fit.

The collection is always changing, as items are added or removed. The artists concocts new displays that he adds to the mix, and also improves and revamps older ones. The museum might be small, but it's got the skeleton of much greater ambitions.

Related Tags

Museums And Collections Museums Taxidermy Bones Wonder Cabinets

Know Before You Go

The Museum is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. See its website for opening hours on public holidays.

It costs NZ$10 to visit the museum for waged adults, $20 for families( two adults and up to three children), and $5 for unwaged/students and young people aged 6-16. Children under 6 can visit for free. Parking is available on the street or in the driveway by arrangement. Alternatively, it's a short walk up the hill from George Street or Olveston. You can also contact the Museum through its website to arrange a visit outside the normal hours. 

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The Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery

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mahalskibruce

  • mahalskibruce

Published

July 2, 2018

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Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery
61 Royal Terrace
Dunedin
New Zealand
-45.865593, 170.504453
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