Portrait of Princess Diana made from lint is among items at new Ripley’s in London

“Local appeal is always good,” Tim O’Brien of the Orlando, Florida-based Ripley Entertainment writes in an e-mail.

So that’s why a portrait of Princess Diana made out of lint — yes, lint from a clothes dryer — will be among the promised 500-plus items on display when the Ripley Believe It or Not! opens in London at 1 Piccadilly Circus on Wednesday.

The artwork — pictured above with its creator, art professor Slater Barron — is a copy of the official court portrait, according to the Ripley’s website.

“We try always to have exhibits with a local appeal, anything local is always good. Then we make sure each museum has one of our ‘iconic’ Ripley exhibits, such as a genuine shrunken head, a two-headed animal, various torture devices, etc. Remember, all of our items are real and genuine, so there is actually no ‘duplication’ of items,” O’Brien explains.

Among the items in the London site: vampire killing kits, an albino alligator, shrunken heads, “The Last Supper” painted on a grain of rice, a mummified man and a moon rock.

– Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: Ripley's Believe It or Not! London website]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 6:16 pm by Mary Forgione and is filed under Europe, Family & Kids, Great Britain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.