Musee Conti Wax Museum

Posted: 07.23.2021 | Updated: 01.20.2025

The Musee Conti Wax Museum was once full of curiosities. Before it closed its doors for good, it stood as a strange but interesting attraction that was not only entertaining but educational as well.

The wax museum in New Orleans was inspired by Madame Tussauds in London. However, the Musee Conti focused on life in the Big Easy, with all the flair.

The selling of the Louisiana Purchase, the slave markets that once dotted the town, and the 1891 Italian massacre were all once depicted in the Musee Conti. But of course, another New Orleans staple was represented in the museum. Figures not made of wax.

Several ghosts are believed to inhabit the building, and they aren’t shy. Visitors have heard disembodied voices and seen strange shadows moving around the building.

Sometimes the wax sculptures seem to come alive, and many visitors even claim that they’ve seen the eyes of the wax dummies follow them across the room.

Do you believe in the hauntings of the Musee Conti Wax Museum? Truth is aways stranger than fiction on a New Orleans haunted history tour. Join NOLA Ghosts to find out for yourself!

Is The Musee Conti Wax Museum?

While the wax figurines may be startling in the shadows, there is something far more spectral lurking in the shadows of the Musee Conti Wax Museum. Vistiors have seen shadow figures dancing in between the mannequins. Reality is blurred in the now defunct New Orleans wax museum and historical building.

Early days of Conti Street

The area around Conti Street was developed during the Spanish Colonial period of New Orleans around the late 1700s. The lot where the Musee Conti stood was previously several separate properties.

The first establishment built on Conti Street was the all-boys Jefferson School. Originally built on Bourbon Street, the school was moved to Conti Street for unknown reasons.

The school closed down in the 1880s. That’s when Silvestre Blasini, a Corsican immigrant, got ahold of the building. Blasini was a scandalous businessman and womanizer who owned a coffee shop and oyster bar. Blasini was an abuser, and he was known to beat his first wife, Isabella. Sometimes neighbors heard her screams from a few houses over.

The building later functioned as a coffin factory. It was notoriously dangerous; the children who worked there sometimes lost a finger, and the materials and chemicals used made the building a fire hazard. Then, in 1920, the building went up in flames.

Whether or not there were casualties is unknown. A brewery then took over the building after it was rebuilt. The American Brewery was one of the best in New Orleans and ran steady until the 1960s.

The Musee Conti

In the 1960s, hotel owner Benjamin Weil and theatre owner Isador Lazarus visited Madame Tussauds in London. They were enamored by the realistic wax sculptures and the way they were used to tell a story. They decided that New Orleans just had to have one.

But remember, this was New Orleans! It couldn’t be any old wax museum.

The duo spent today’s equivalent of $5 million to have the wax dummies sculpted and shipped from Paris. After a few years of hard work and preparation, the Musee Conti Wax Museum opened to the public in 1964.

The exhibits told the story of New Orleans in style. The naked sculpture of Napoleon taking a bath represented the sale of the Louisiana Purchase to the US.

The story of the red-light district is symbolized by two competing sex workers locked in a brawl. The scene highlights the dangerous streets of Storyville, where “Whiskey, women, and frequently even life, were cheap.”

The Musee Conti also portrays the city’s slave markets, the massacre of Italians in 1891, and creation of craps a popular gambling game.

The Haunted Dungeon is one of the Musee Conti’s more unusual exhibits.

One can relieve their itch for the macabre in this exhibit that hints where the wax sculptures actually look like human bodies dipped in wax.

The caged cyclops is the last exhibit before exiting. The hairy monster is rumored to be made with natural human hair and keeps an eye on the back door in case any freeloaders make their way in.

The wax museum survived the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, to the surprise of the owners. Whereas they thought the wax dummies would melt in the 100-degree heat, they somehow escaped unscathed. The Musee Conti remained open until 2016 when it closed its doors for good.

Ghosts of the Musee Conti Wax Museum

Who would’ve guessed that a room full of wax dummies in New Orleans would also be haunted? While many people are normally creeped out by wax sculptures, it’s not just the dummies that haunt the Musee Conti. There are bonafide ghosts living in the New Orleans museum.

Visitors to the wax museum in New Orleans can expect to be greeted by disembodied voices. But, despite their frightening presence, they really just want to say hi. Some believe the voices to be leftover memories from the days when the boy’s school stood at the site.

Other theories point to the coffin factory fire, where the ghosts of those who perished still live on in the building. Though it’s unknown if anyone actually died in the fire, the possibility is highly likely given the frequency of workplace injuries.

Strange shadowy figures are also known to roam around the building. They tend to move between the wax figures, following visitors around the exhibit. While nobody’s been directly approached by the shadows, the phenomenon is a creepy one nonetheless.

Some visitors have even claimed to be haunted by the dummies. Wax sculptures can be a bit creepy, and the claims that some are actually live humans dipped in wax can’t be ruled out.

People claim that the wax dummies move on their own, while some say their eyes follow you around the exhibit. Perhaps the wax sculptures are looking for their next victim…

Haunted history of New Orleans!

The Musee Conti Wax Museum displayed everything you needed to know about the history of New Orleans. Unfortunately, they closed their doors in 2016. But, if you want to learn more about the history of New Orleans then join NOLA Ghosts on a historic walking tour!

In the meantime, keep reading our blog for more haunted history from the Crecent City!

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Sources:

• https://www.neworleanswaxmuseum.com/
• https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/28158
• https://www.neworleanswaxmuseum.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-musee-conti-wax-museum-new-orleans/