Think you’re in need of a nose job? Wonder how many noses it takes to build a nose museum? Well, hundreds of schnozzes live on in Sweden. Housed in the Museum of Student Life at Lund University, the Nose Academy (could there be any other name?), managed by a Nasal Committee (how do I get on board?) is a collection of plaster casts of noses belonging to distinguished Scandinavians, like Tycho Brahe’s legendary silver nose as well as several unknown noses of the common man. Mirrors are part of the display so that visitors can see the nose in profile and front-on. Unfortunately, the collection is missing the non-existent blowhole of Michael Jackson, but I know if Jacko hadn’t died unexpectedly, I think he would have taken Swedish citizenship and donated what was left of his collapsed nose to this museum of nasal immortality.
Believe it or not, Scandinavians have a thing for nostrils. In Copenhagan, at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, the Nasothek display is a collection of restoration noses removed from portrait busts and statues. The noses, some made of marble and plaster, were all originally exhibited on the Greek and Roman portrait statues located in the museum itself. During the 19th century, it was common practice for museums to exhibit marble sculptures in a “restored” state, with damaged parts repaired or reconstructed to make the statue look as much as possible as it did when it was first created. In the 20th-century “de-restoration” period, many Roman portrait heads became noseless again, with their restored noses removed to become part of the museum’s collection in a different way.
