Freaks !

Peter the Great’s “Kunstkammer” is the result of 15 years of collecting the oddities and the rarities of Russia and the world, before making it available to the public in 1719. Animals with two heads or multiple legs or pickled punks are among Frederik Ruysch’s amazing anatomical dioramas (which included fetal skeletons surrounded by “trees” of their own preserved circulatory systems) and in the early days of the museum; live “freaks” were on display.