Click with caution: Why museums are sharing photos of their creepiest objects online

A UK museum has started an online challenge asking curators to share pictures of disturbing pieces from their collections

A red-eyed bear casts a soul-staring glance at the Toy Museum of Penshurst Place, a manor and garden house in Kent.  'Feed it a 2 pence piece and it'll pretend to drink from its cup as it stares into your soul,' they write on Twitter. Via @Penshurst Place / Twitter

The Deutsches Historisches Museum in Germany shared an image of a 1650/1750 plague mask from their collection. Via @DHMBerlin / Twitter

A dried merman from London's Science Museum. According to the museum, it is possibly a Javanese ritual figure from Denmark or Japan and dates back to 1850-1900. Via @Punk_Science / Twitter 

The York Art Gallery was confident in its submission, writing, 'Guys we know we have already won.' Their creepiest object is a ceramic piece by Kerry Jameson moulded into a severed lower leg that has sprouted its own limbs and head. Via @YorkArtGallery / Twitter

A carved pendant where one side features a dead man's face, while the other side shows a decaying skull. It dates back to 16th century Germany. Via @AshmoleanMuseum / Twitter

Shared by the York Castle Museum, these models made from crab legs and claws playing cards are feats of a strange imagination. 'Typical Victorians, they loved weird/creepy stuff,' the museum states on Twitter. Via @YorkCastle / Twitter

From the collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford: a sheep's heart stuck with pins and nails and strung on a loop of cord. According to curator Dan Hicks, the object was made in South Devon around 1911 and was meant for 'breaking evil spells'. Via @profdanhicks / Twitter

For some, the expressions on these dolls' faces don't appear so innocent. They are part of the collection of the Lilliput Doll and Toy Museum in Brading on the Isle of Wight. Via @PaulCowdell / Twitter

Another merman figure, this one is from the Booth Museum in Brighton, shared by museum researcher Fiona Candlin. Via @FionaCandlin / Twitter

Can you guess what this is? The Museums Galleries Scotland shared this decorative towel holder from the collection of the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum in Innsbruck. Via @MuseumGalScot / Twitter

'Imagine rummaging through an archive and unwrapping this,' writes the Egham Museum. The museum in Surrey shared fragments of a doll that had been found on the grounds of a junior school. Via @EghamMuseum / Twitter

Not quite what we imagine a mermaid to look like, this object is from the natural sciences department of the National Museums Scotland. Via @NatSciNMS / Twitter

A pincushion with tiny children's heads embedded in them from the Norwich Castle museum. Via @RedHeadedAli / Twitter 

Readers, beware. These objects are not from the faint-hearted – mummified fingers, beastly mermen figures and haunting dolls. Housed in museum collections around the world, they have now come to the social media surface thanks to an online challenge by the Yorkshire Museum in the UK.

On Friday, the archaeological museum instigated a “Curator Battle” on Twitter with the inaugural theme “Creepiest Object”, challenging curators and specialists to find the most bizarre, hair-raising objects in their museum collections.

Yorkshire Museum’s submission looks harmless enough at first glance, a hair bun from the third or fourth century, until you read that it has been taken from the burial site of a Roman woman.

Museums – large and small, some with the most niche of collections – responded with pictures of odd and frightening objects, including a presumed Javanese ritual figure of a dried merman from London’s Science Museum. With a skeletal body and wispy white hair and feathers, the creature looks like a crossbreed of bird and fish.

Art institutions were also keen to show off artists’ works, such as Kerry Jameson’s ceramic piece of a lower leg transformed into a monster with its own limbs and eyes.

Meanwhile, a submission from a German museum seems fitting for the current times: a plague mask with a long beak-like feature from 1650 to 1750.

For those who dare, the hashtags #CuratorBattle and #Creepiest Objects will uncover more nightmare-inducing treasures, such as a drinking bear toy from the Museum of Penshurst Place or the dolls at the Lilliput Doll and Toy Museum – objects that make you question how they managed to market them to children.

The tweet continues to gain responses, with more than 500 replies and 2,400 retweets. Submissions have come in from around the world, including Germany, Canada, Iceland and the US.

The next Curator Battle with a new theme will be announced on Yorkshire Museum’s Twitter page on Friday.