Sex museums offer wide variety of quirky exhibits

Please be advised that a Chicago-based establishment disguised under a rather nondescript name of the “Museum of Leather Items” is not what it seems. In actuality, the museum runs an exhibition of BDSM gear e.g. whips, corsets, gags, handcuffs and the like. The museum, which is open to the public only on weekends, is worth taking a look at if you happen to be in Chicago.

There was no sex in the USSR. To be more precise, sex was an integral part of medical science. Many Russians in their late thirties can easily remember a hefty tome called Women’s Diseases, one of the few most popular authorities on sexual education some twenty years ago. It stands to reason that Igor Knyazkin, an urologist by profession, set up the first sex museum in Russia.

Dr. Knyazkin says he drew inspiration from his daily work. He noticed that it was a lot easier for the patient to show where it hurts than talk about his problems. Wooden models of a penis proved to be extremely handy for the purpose of explanation and examination. The number of penile models in the doctor’s office had been steadily growing. Finally, a collection of 15,000 models was presented for public inspection in the center for the study and treatment of diseases of the prostate gland, a clinic that is actually headed by Dr. Knyazkin. The museum is located in St. Petersburg.

The St. Petersburg museum is mostly associated with one of its exhibits, namely the penis that is alleged to have belonged to Grigori Rasputin. Rumor has it that a fanatical devotee of the notorious Siberian monk got hold of the sex organ shortly after Rasputin was murdered. The penis was cut off Rasputin’s body either during an autopsy or at a later time when somebody took it away to desecrate the corpse. The devotee preserved the organ in alcohol and fled Russia.

He reportedly handed the item to Rasputin’s daughter in Paris. The daughter sold it to an antiquary after she became strapped for funds in the mid-1970s. Maybe the story has a grain or two of truth; maybe it is just a fiction. It is up for the visitors to form an opinion of their own.

Medportal

Translated by Guerman Grachev
Pravda.ru