A Museum Small Enough to Fit on Your Desk

Museums are a great service to the population, bringing art and artifacts to people who otherwise wouldn't have access to such rarities. The Mini Museum also brings artifacts to the people, but in a much less public way. After buying one, customers receive their own block of resin with a number of tiny specimens encased inside. The inventory of these miniature museums is fairly impressive, including bits of Stegosaurus bone, mammoth meat, and the Berlin Wall. Instead of walking through the wide halls of a museum, owners of the Mini Museum can just sit at their desk and admire their portable collection.

These artifacts come from creator Hans Fex, who has been collecting since he was young. At age 11, Fex came up with the idea for the museum blocks, and has since been collecting items with the intention of eventually breaking off small pieces to share with the world.

Each artifact found in the miniature museums has been confirmed as authentic—Fex met with curators, got pieces examined by experts, and even obtained some of the materials himself (he went all the way to Romania to scoop dirt from Vlad the Impaler's castle). The hard work cost an estimated $300,000, and eventually led him to quit his job to focus on the project.

Luckily, his devotion paid off: During his first Kickstarter campaign last year, 5,030 backers pledged a whopping $1,226,811. Fex meticulously crafted each purchased Mini Museum by hand, carefully placing each bit of history in one of thousands of blocks of resin. Each block also came with a piece of microfilm labeled "gratitude," which contained a list of the backers' names as well as a piece of Fex's beard. 

Fex and customers alike were pleased with the results, leading to a second Kickstarter campaign, which is still going. This time, customers can buy mammoth meat, medieval chain mail, dinosaur skin, and more, all encased in high-quality acrylic. The Mini Museums come in three sizes, with varying numbers of specimens. If you ever wanted to own a tiny piece of Mt. Fuji or some grains of Japanese star sand, now is your chance.