From the ancient times the wax was used for various purposes - for mummy preservation or as a protectant for oil paintings and frescoes. Romans made wax moulds of dead people's faces. The portraits of friends and relatives were also made of wax. In the Middle Ages the wax sculptures were often located in Roman and Gothic churches and chapels.

The first wax figures cabinet appeared in Paris in 1776, when doctor Courtier have arranged a small museum using his private collections.

The museum was so successful that this somehow later gave an impulse to the foundation of the most famous wax figure museum in the world, Museum of Madame Tussaud in London. Marie Grossholtz, later known as Madame Tussaud, first worked as an apprentice in Courtier's studio.

Later Tussaud created her own wax figure gallery. She became famous after arranging a wax composition The Death of the Tyrant that recreated the execution of Robespierre. Later Tussaud and her husband were forced to leave Paris and settled down in London. They traveled from one trade fair to another with their exposition until they gained enough money to open there own private museum in 1835, which enriched the list of London's finest places of interest. Nowadays the technology of creation of wax figures hasn't practically changed. But a lot of modern technical means like voice and sound accompaniment modeling, animated backgrounds are used to reinforce the feeling of authenticity.

The Museum of Wax Figures was opened again on the 4 of March, 2010. 63 figures of collection “live” in the area of more than 200 meters. They had to huddle in smaller space, so it was not possible to show the whole collection. By now wax characters have been classified by general subjects in a few rooms. Writers with artists (to be more correct with their characters) live in one hall, in the second - historical personalities of Ukraine, in the third hall there are leaders and rulers from Nikolay the II to Yanukovich, in the forth foreign and Russian film and pop stars are situated and in the fifth hall – Ukrainian “stars”.

Museum was founded in 2000 though first figures appeared earlier under temporary exhibitions. The figures were made in different ways and turned out different. In one case “heroes” posed and checked the work, in other they presented their pictures, in the third case postmortem masks were used, in the forth case stop frames from films and performances (mostly with foreign heroes) were used. The figures appeared quite different, some of them are associated with other characters, for example Vladimir Vysotskiy is associated with Anatoliy Kashpirovskiy (considering the same hairstyles), and Victor Yanukovich is associated with Joseph Kobzon (they have only difference in height, the present President has Grenadier height– 192 cm).

Other figures, on the contrary, amaze with accurate identity with the character. These are Evgeniy Leonov, Zinoviy Gerdt in the unforgettable role of Panikovskiy, Margarita Krinitsina as Pronya Prokopovna, and our contemporaries: Dmitriy Gordon, Yana Klochkova, Mykola Veresen. Gymnast Liliya Podkopaeva agreed to give gypsum mask for making her wax figure, which is not a pleasant procedure. But then she loved it so much, that even presented her gym suit, which she put on her twin. One of the first dresses of Verka Serdyuchka was sacrificed by Andrey Danylko. Leonid Kravchuk presented glasses to his “colleague”, Victor Yanukovich gave a whole suit. Andrey Mironov, whose figure was approved by his mother, is dressed in his scenic suit from “Figaro” performance, which was the last one in the artist’s life.

In the museum you understand how legendary persons looked for their contemporaries. Stalin was only 163 cm high and Pushkin - 158 cm. Victor Tsoy wasn’t of “middle Korean” height, that’s why Andrey Makarevich looks lost against him. So there is freedom for those, who like comparing, photographing and making historical characters and contemporary idols closer and more understandable for themselves.

The technology of making wax figures, presented in the museum, is of the highest level. The real hair, dental and eye prosthesis – they try to be closer to the original. So color of eyes and hair (if there is reliable information) are complied with. For museum workers the figures are almost like alive. Their heads are washed by shampoo and workers style their hair with a hairdryer, clear their suits, and “treat” characters from time to time, repairing attackable parts, primarily fingers. The wax for figures is 95% clear apian, delivered from Chernigivshchina and Sumshchina, mixed with special composition, which allow enduring wide temperature differences. Most figures are made on base of plastic; only visible parts of body are from wax –6-8 kilos of wax is needed for an average figure, They are made by group of masters during several months.

So, who can we see here, besides the above mentioned characters? These are: S. Esenin, M. Bulgakov, N. Gogol, T. Shevchenko, M. Grushevskiy, B. Khmelnitskiy, I. Mazepa, Princes Vladimir and Yaroslav, Princess Olga, unforgettable triplet “Trus-Balbes-Bivaliy”, Andrey Shevchenko, V. Lobanovskiy, N. Khrushchev, L. Brezhnev, M. Gorbachev, L. Kuchma, V. Yushchenko and Y. Timoshenko, Britney Spears (the most valuable woman of the museum, made of 20 kg of wax, because she is in an open dress), also L. Utesov, L. Gurchenko, A. Schwarzenegger, Leonardo Di Caprio, etc. Some figures are restored from time to time.

The idea to establish a museum of such kind in Kiev appeared after its founders familiarized with exposition of famous London museum branch in Amsterdam. After this they questioned themselves - if there are such museums in Moscow and Saint Petersburg why not to create one in the capital of Ukraine. But they've had to face a lot of problems and difficulties, because in Ukraine there were no experienced specialists in waxwork at that time. Also there were no proper specialists in decorative work. So it took three years to arrange the 20 figures exposition, which became the basis of museum's collection. It was first presented to the public on the 12th January of 2000.

Nowadays the exposition consists of more than 60 figures and is constantly growing. The museum, one of the best of such kind in Eastern Europe, is by right considered to be one of the most interesting places in Kiev. Wax has been used for various purposes since the ancient times - for mummy preservation or as a protecting for oil paintings and frescoes. The Romans made wax face masks of the dead.

The portraits of friends and relatives were also made of wax. In the Middle Ages the wax sculptures were often located in Roman and Gothic churches and chapels. The first wax figures cabinet appeared in Paris, in 1776, when doctor Courtier arranged a small museum using his private collections. The museum was so successful that this somehow later gave an impulse to the foundation of the most famous wax figure museum in the world, Museum of Madame Tussaud in London.

Marie Grossholtz, later known as Madame Tussaud, first worked as an apprentice in Courtier studio.Later Tussaud created her own wax figure gallery. She became famous after arranging a wax composition The Death of the Tyrant that recreated the execution of Robespierre. Later Tussaud and her husband were forced to leave Paris and settled down in London. They traveled from one trade fair to another with their exposition until they gained enough money to open their own private museum in 1835, which enriched the list of London finest places of interest. Nowadays the technology of creation of wax figures hasn't practically changed.

But a lot of modern technical means like voice and sound accompaniment modeling, animated backgrounds are used to reinforce the feeling of authenticity. The idea to establish a museum of such kind in Kiev appeared after its founders familiarized with exposition of famous London museum branch in Amsterdam. After this they questioned themselves - if there are such museums in Moscow and Saint Petersburg why not to create one in the capital of Ukraine. But they've had to face a lot of problems and difficulties, because in Ukraine there were no experienced specialists in waxwork at that time. Also there were no proper specialists in decorative work. So it took three years to arrange the 20 figures exposition, which became the basis of museum's collection. It was first presented to public on the 12th January, 2000.

Nowadays the exposition consists of more than 60 figures and is constantly growing. The museum, one of the best of such kind in Eastern Europe, and considered to be one of the most interesting places of Kiyv.