Unclaimed Baggage Museum: The five coolest things we found there
Unclaimed Baggage has been opening up lost luggage for over five decades, and they’ve seen some weird stuff inside. The Scottsboro, Alabama, retailer has been purchasing lost luggage from airlines since 1970 (that accounts for less than 0.03% of lost luggage, by the way), and it’s so beloved that Oscar winners buy tuxes there. But now, they’re showing off more of the unique (and kinda weird) items in the new Unclaimed Baggage Museum located inside the store.
“We’re so often asked the weirdest thing we found,” said Unclaimed Baggage’s public relations manager, Sonni Hood, “so we made a museum.”
The opening is set for 11 a.m. on Friday, April 21, with an unveiling, treats and games. The following day there will be food trucks, music, vendors, games and guided tours of the museum.
Read more: Scottsboro’s Unclaimed Baggage Museum, devoted to weird finds, opening soon
The Scottsboro institution recently allowed us a sneak peek, and there are so many amazing items that it’s difficult to figure out what to look at first. Here are five of our favorite pieces:
A Hoggle display
The Hoggle display at the Unclaimed Baggage Museum in Scottsboro.
This may be Unclaimed Baggage’s most famous find: Hoggle, the puppet from David Bowie’s 1986 film Labyrinth, arrived in lost bags at the store in 1997. Hoggle was in poor condition — the puppet wasn’t built to last a while — so he was sent to a master doll doctor and artist for restoration, and he was displayed in the entrance to welcome visitors.
Hoggle has been recently restored again to more accurately reflect how he looked in the film. He has an entire display in the museum, including his first restored head:
The first restored Hoggle head from David Bowie’s “Labyrinth” at the Unclaimed Baggage Museum in Scottsboro.
A rattlesnake
A rattlesnake at the Unclaimed Baggage Museum in Scottsboro.
Your eye is immediately going to be drawn to a snake, right? When the processing team at Unclaimed found the snake in a pocket of a duffel bag. It was eventually released in a forest, and the Unclaimed team got a taxidermy model to represent the memorable find. (Honorable mention: There’s also a dried frog purse.)
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A Gary Sinese-signed cowboy hat
Gary Sinise-signed cowboy hat at Unclaimed Baggage Museum in Scottsboro.
There are a lot of signed items in the museum. There’s a Michael Jordan-signed basketball, Mohammad Ali-signed hat and drums with the signatures of all the members of rock band Kings of Leon. One of the most random objects is a cowboy hat signed by actor Gary Sinise, and it seems right at home in a museum filled with weird, random things.
Ancient Egyptian artifacts
This Gucci bag was filled with many historical artifacts. It’s now displayed in the Unclaimed Baggage Museum.
In 1980, the processing team at Unclaimed got another surprise: They opened a Gucci bag to discover a lot of ancient Egyptian artifacts. Some of the items dated back to 1500 B.C., according to Unclaimed Baggage, and included a mummified hawk sarcophagus and a wood face sarcophagus mask, among others. Many of the items were sold through Christie’s Auction House, and 3-D replicas are displayed in the museum.
An ancient Egyptian mask at Unclaimed Baggage in Scottsboro.
Medieval Armor
Armor at the Medieval Armor display.
I mean, there’s a display devoted to medieval armor. How fun is that?
Honorable mention
The World Music display at Unclaimed Baggage Museum.
Not only does the retailer have an exhibit devoted to world music, but video monitors are also set up around the display to show how they’re played.
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