Key Takeaways
- Viktor Wynd permanently removed an alleged sample of Russell Brand’s pubic hair from his Hackney museum, saying Brand “has no place in my museum of horrors.”
- According to the article, Wynd pulled the item after Brand received a 10½-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault; Brand maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings.
- A stylist who claimed she had shaved Brand at a Camden salon mailed Wynd the hair in 2016, but no independent source has verified its authenticity.
London collector Viktor Wynd has permanently retired one of his exhibition's most bizarre acquisitions: an alleged cutting of Russell Brand's pubic hair.
The item was withdrawn from public display at the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History in Hackney, London following the Get Him to the Greek actor’s sentencing in court.
“I took them straight off display and have no desire to hear his name again – he has no place in my museum of horrors,” Wynd told Variety on Wednesday (Nov. 11).
The alleged pubic hair initially reached Wynd through the mail in 2016 by a stylist who claimed she had shaved Brand at a salon in Camden Town. Variety notes that the hair had not been "independently verified.”
Per the magazine, Wynd's gallery, which was established on Hackney's Mare Street in 2014, features a collection of oddities such as “two-headed animals, dodo bones, occult objects and a lock of Elvis Presley’s hair.”
On Nov. 5, a jury at Southwark Crown Court convicted the 51-year-old actor of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving four complainants between 2004 and 2009, while acquitting him of two separate rape allegations and a charge of attempted indecent assault.
Judge Joel Bennathan handed the actor a 10 and a half year prison sentence on Monday (Nov. 9)
“Whatever women wear, wherever they go, indeed whatever they drink, they retain the right to say no and to demand justice from the criminal courts when sexual predators like you, Russell Brand, act without their consent," Judge Bennathan said, per The Guardian.
Brand maintained his innocence against every charge throughout the proceedings, testifying that he had never engaged in non-consensual sexual acts.
According to Deadline, Netflix will keep Brand’s 2018 stand-up special Russell Brand: Re:Birth available in its catalog despite his conviction, though the service will reportedly suppress the title from recommendation carousels and direct search results for his name.
Brand could still face further legal trouble, according to The Guardian, as London's Metropolitan Police continue to probe two other rape allegations that have been forwarded to the Crown Prosecution Service.
