Intricate wooden model of a four-storey, double-fronted house on moulded legs, known as the 'Phantom Museum' built by animators the Brothers Quay, for their film 'The Phantom Museum: Random Forays into Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection', made in London, 2002

Originally commissioned by the Wellcome Trust, the film 'The Phantom Museum' featured in the British Museum exhibition 'Medicine Man: The Forgotten Museum of Henry Wellcome' (June-November 2003). The film is a surrealist, personal introduction to the extraordinary assemblage of medical objects made by Henry Wellcome, playing on the concept that the wooden model represents an empty storeroom locked away from the public eye, or a classic cabinet of curiosities. Henry Wellcome’s medical collection is now on long-term loan to the Science Museum and constitutes two thirds of the museum’s medical collections. The Quay Brother’s film featured shots of the interiors of the museum’s stores at Blythe House, items in the collection, and a cameo from the Curator of Community Health.

The Phantom Museum model was displayed alongside an edited version of the film in the Science Museum’s The Science and Art of Medicine Gallery from 2004 to 2015, acting as an introduction to the Wellcome galleries as a whole. It therefore represents over a decade of display history for the museum.

The Quays are American identical twin brothers who live and work in London, focusing on illustration and stop-motion animation. Much of their work features puppets made of doll parts, often partially disassembled, evoking a dark and moody atmosphere particularly suited to parts of the Wellcome Collection.