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Musée Grévin

Coordinates: 48°52′18.59″N 2°20′31.56″E / 48.8718306°N 2.3421000°E / 48.8718306; 2.3421000
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Musée Grévin
Façade of the Musée Grévin
Map
Established1882; 142 years ago (1882)
LocationRue de Lille 75343 Paris, France
TypeWax museum
Websitegrevin.com
Entrance from Passage Jouffroy

The Musée Grévin (French: [myze ɡʁevɛ̃]; Euronext: GREV) (English: Grévin Museum) is a wax museum located on the Grands Boulevards in the 9th arrondissement of Paris on the right bank of the Seine. The Musée Grévin also has a location in Seoul. Musée Grévin Montreal opened in 2013, and closed in 2021.[1]

History

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The museum was founded in 1882 by Arthur Meyer, a journalist for Le Gaulois, on the model of Madame Tussauds founded in London in 1835,[2] and named for its first artistic director, caricaturist Alfred Grévin. It is one of the oldest wax museums in Europe. Its baroque architecture includes a hall of mirrors based on the principle of a catoptric cistula[3] in 2018, a young American author, composer, interpreter and designer, Krysle Lip was in charge of the artistic and esthetical transformation of the Hall of Mirrors [3] The hall of mirrors was built for the Exposition Universelle in 1900.[4] It was originally housed in the Palais des mirages designed by Eugène Hénard.[5]

Attractions

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The Musée Grévin now contains some 450 characters arranged in scenes from the history of France and modern life, including a panorama of French history from Charlemagne to Napoleon III and bloody scenes of the French Revolution, with the original wax figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries witnessing their technical evolution. By contrast, the more contemporaneous movie stars, athletes, and international figures such as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Shah Rukh Khan, Pablo Picasso, Michael Jackson, Josephine Baker and Pope John Paul II use the modern techniques of modeling. The tableau of Charlotte Corday murdering Jean-Paul Marat created in 1889 includes the actual knife and bathtub used.

New wax characters are regularly added to the Museum among more than 2000 made since it opened. They include Zinedine Zidane, Jean Reno, Monica Bellucci, Jean Dujardin, Isabelle Adjani[4] and Nolwenn Leroy.[6]

Bollywood celebrities whose wax has been added include Shah Rukh Khan,[7] Aishwarya Rai[8] and Ranveer Singh.[9]

Wax Figure Controversies

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In October 2023, the museum unveiled a new wax figure of actor Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock. However, many people on social media made comments about how little the sculpture actually looked like him. Many fans pointed out that the figure's skin tone was incorrect.[10] Even Dwayne Johnson himself called on the museum to "update my wax figure with some important details, starting with my skin colour."[11]. The museum later had its skin tone darkened after the statue drew a wave of attention on social media for its too-light look.[12]

In July 2024, the museum unveiled a new waxwork figure of Beyonce. Despite the attention to detail in the hair and costume, something quite major was amiss—the singer’s face was totally unrecognisable. Many fans took to social media to share their confusion, as the wax figure looked rather different from the real-life Beyonce.[13]

Grévin Seoul

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The Grévin Seoul is a waxwork museum in Seoul, South Korea. The museum was founded in 2015.[14]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Grévin Museum in Montreal permanently closes - Montreal | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
  2. ^ "Grevin Wax Museum in Paris". Paris Digest. 2018. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  3. ^ a b "The Hall of mirrors". 11 March 2024.
  4. ^ a b Blackmore, Ruth (2012). The Rough Guide to Paris. London: Rough Guides. p. 71. ISBN 978-1405386951.
  5. ^ "Passages et Galeries - 1ère partie". Sur les toits de paris. 25 August 2010. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  6. ^ "Nolwenn Leroy" (in French). Musée Grévin. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
  7. ^ "Now, Shah Rukh's wax statue in Paris". Hindustan Times. March 8, 2008.
  8. ^ "First Look: Aishwarya's wax statue in Europe's oldest museum". India Today. July 14, 2013.
  9. ^ Verma, Abhinav (July 7, 2017). "The Internet thinks that Ranveer Singh's wax statue looks more like Shiamak Davar". Hindustan Times.
  10. ^ "Why fans hate Dwayne Johnson's new wax figure". The Independent. 2023-10-23. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  11. ^ "The Rock urges skin tone change to wax figure in Paris museum". 2023-10-23. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  12. ^ Roeloffs, Mary Whitfill. "The Musée Grévin In Paris Has Fixed The Skin Color Of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's Wax Figure". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  13. ^ Harman, Laura (2024-07-04). "Beyoncé's waxwork in Paris is unrecognisable as fans ask 'who is that?'". Metro. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  14. ^ Yun Suh-young (2015-07-31). "Grevin wax museum opens in Seoul". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 2016-08-17. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
  15. ^ (fr) Musée des moulages dermatologiques de l'hôpital Saint-Louis, site bium.univ-paris5.fr.
  16. ^ (fr) Musée des moulages dermatologiques de l'hôpital Saint-Louis, site hôpital-Saint-Louis.aphp.fr.
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48°52′18.59″N 2°20′31.56″E / 48.8718306°N 2.3421000°E / 48.8718306; 2.3421000

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