Madame Tussauds Goes to Istanbul (PHOTO)

According to local media, the museum will cover a 2,000 square meter area on the first two floors of the newly restored famous shopping mall Grand Pera on İstiklal Avenue in Istanbul's historic Taksim district.

​Wax figures of Turkey’s first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Sufi philosopher and poet Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, famous Turkish singer Barış Manço, Osman Architect Mi'mâr Sinân will be the first to go on display in the museum.

​However, the uniqueness of Madame Tussauds Museum in Istanbul is in combining Eastern and Western traditions. Among 55 wax figures the visitors will see such international celebrities as Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Lionel Messi, Maria Sharapova, Rihanna and others.

​According to Turkish daily Hürriyet, the General Director of Madame Tussauds in Istanbul Sarper Hilmi Suner plans to enrich the collection with 3 or 4 items every year.

“Madame Tussauds is world’s oldest wax figure museum with a 250- year-old legacy. We are very excited and proud that its 21st branch is opening in Istanbul,” Suner said.

​“Each figure exhibited here is the result of painstaking work of many specialists. Usually it takes from 4 to 8 month to create a single figure. We try to achieve the highest realism and resemblance of the figure’s protagonist,” the director stressed.

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