Visit the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, Croatia

Heartbreak is a universal emotion with which everyone deals differently.

Burning pictures, hitting the joint, locking up in a room, going on rebound are some usual plans of action. Yet some people, like this Croatian couple, get creative about it.

While most people try to move on in life by destroying and forgetting everything about a failed relationship, Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic decided they would display their mementoes for all the public to see.

It started when the couple broke up in 2005, and while sorting out their stuff they came across sentimental tokens that were too difficult to divide and even harder to throw away. They decided to collect similar objects from their network of friends until they gathered enough to start a museum of their own. Thus the Museum of Broken Relationships was born.

It started at first as a traveling museum, collecting contributions from each location they visit. Since then, they’ve accumulated over 800 artifacts around the world, each engrained with a story of a love lost.

Items range from clothing (lingerie and wedding dresses to prosthetics (plastic limbs and fake breasts) to everyday objects and even weapons. Plaques accompany the objects with descriptions of their previous owners. Some stories are funny and comedic, but some stories are tragic and even frightening.

The Museum of Broken Relationships is still accepting exhibition donations from brokenhearted people all over the world. If you want a different kind of release from your romantic past, you might want to participate in this project here.

As Vistica says, “When you give your object and your story to the museum, it is no longer your story – it is the world’s.”

Official website