Iceland’s penis museum goes to great lengths to entertain and educate visitors
Museum has more than 286 different organs on display and attracts more female visitors than male – and curator Hjortur Sigurdsson says member donations are welcome
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Size doesn’t matter at the Icelandic Phallological Museum. Home to the world’s largest collection of penises, the museum has an eye-watering array of specimens carefully collected from hundreds of different animals.
“I came to see if it was true, that there really was a penis museum in Reykjavik,” says American tourist Jerry Anderson, smiling as he stares at the phallus of a sperm whale, the largest specimen in the museum.
Watch: Iceland breaks taboo with world's largest penis museum
Preserved in formaldehyde inside a huge transparent case at the museum’s entrance, it is 1.70 metres tall and weighs 75kg.
Inside the museum’s large, bright rooms, there are penises and penile parts of all shapes and sizes from a huge array of mammals: whales and bears, seals and cats, and even mice.
It also houses a wide range of genital-themed artefacts, among them trays, totem poles and a telephone.
“Who could resist coming to a penis museum?” says 62-year-old Kim, a tourist from Canada.
“We thought it will be hilarious and it is,” she says, bursting out laughing as she and her friend look at a tube supposedly containing the invisible penis of an elf.
The Phallological Museum is anything but quiet as visitors giggle over the 286 exhibited biological specimens.
“It’s a good plateau for jokes and having a good time. You can get educated and at the same time have some fun,” says Hjortur Sigurdsson, 52, a former logistics manager who runs the museum.
His father Sigurdur Hjartarson, a historian who worked as a teacher for 37 years, opened the museum in 1997, starting with just 62 specimens.
“It all started as a joke,” Sigurdsson says. “My father had fun just collecting, doing something no one has done before. He always said somebody had to do it.”
Back in 1980, Hjartarson had already gathered 13 specimens, nine from land mammals and four from whales.
Within a decade, that number had grown to 34.
But it was years before the museum got its hands on a human specimen, pledged by a 96-year-old Icelandic donor who was worried his manhood would shrink as he got older, Sigurdsson says. When the donor died in 2011, his membrum virile was removed, preserved and added to the collection.
Asked if he too would be willing to contribute to the museum’s unique collection, visitor Jerry Andersson says, “Sure. I’m donating my organs, I guess I can donate one more.”
Sigurdsson says the purpose of the penis museum is education and not eroticism. “It’s been a bit taboo, especially (with) the human organ, but if you say ‘penis’, it attracts people,” he says.
“And, of course, we’re the only museum in the world that has been collecting biological organs.”
“A lot of schoolkids come here especially during school hours and have a lot of fun,” Sigurdsson says, noting that visitors can compare the colour, size and shape of a tiny mouse’s penis to that of a whale.
“They are some of our favourite guests because they are asking all the time … why the shape? Why the size?” he says. “They aren’t afraid to ask.”
Over the years, interest in the museum has grown and in 2011 it had 12,000 visitors in an island nation better known for its breathtaking landscapes.
It also has a shop which sells everything from penile-shaped pasta to designer condoms and hand-knitted warmers.
Most of the visitors are foreign nationals and more than 60 per cent are women.
