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History is littered with examples of wax statues gone wrong.
I’m told that it’s a fine art, getting the likeness just right.
Madame Tussauds nailed it with the wax figure of Meghan Markle, unveiled just before she married Harry, except for one small detail.
If looks could kill, that wax figure would be on the FBI watchlist.
Still, it’s pretty good, especially when you put it alongside some of the figures created by Arlindo Armacollo, a Brazillian…erm…wax artist? That’s his version of Marilyn Monroe above.
His work has recently gone viral after a 2015 news report about it resurfaced on social media.
Behold:
Yes, they are haunted.
The full report doesn’t have English subtitles, but you can check it out here if you’re keen.
During the 2015 visit to view the collection, displayed in the town of Rolândia, reports The Guardian, the reporter gushed about the work, and the difficulty of achieving “the richness of detail”.
They concluded by stating that “the artist wanted to capture the character as well as the soul of each person”.
He may well have captured their souls. This could be the secret to the Queen’s longevity.
Other key figures mangled beyond recognition include Nelson Mandela:
Albert Einstein, looking terrified:
Elvis…?
And Princess Diana, who looks ready to take out someone’s throat:
The artist (below) seems unfazed by his newfound attention on the internet.
“I couldn’t care less [about the criticism],” Armacollo, 77, told the Guardian on Tuesday as he was flooded with interview requests and invitations for television appearances he planned to decline.
“If it was about making money it might bother me whether people appreciated what I was doing or not. But I do the things I do because I enjoy them. I did this for our town. If people like it, come and visit. If they don’t, don’t,” he shrugged. “Why worry?”
Fair enough. Everyone needs a hobby.
The statues are made from around five kilograms of wax and imported English eyeballs.
Armacollo says that he hopes that the attention that the wax figures have attracted will bring in tourists from other countries.
Armacollo’s only regret was the reaction of his teenager granddaughter, left distraught by the mocking of her grandfather’s mannequins. “She’s very sensitive. She even cried,” the artist admitted, “but now she’s laughing about it too.”
Let’s take one more video tour to make sure that you have enough nightmare fuel to get you through the week:
[source:guardian]
