In the museum of Jaffa the relics of Dalì, Fellini and Marilyn Monroe
Hanging on the stone wall of one of the oldest buildings in Jaffa’s Old Town is a white Vespa Piaggio from 1963. “I bought it in Cyprus when I was 16. And believe me, of all the objects received as gifts in the course of a lifetime, from the most powerful personalities and the most famous celebrities in the world, this Vespa is the thing I am most fond of ». In telling the stories that link him to the countless memorabilia in his collection, 75-year-old Uri Geller has the same enthusiasm as children at the end of a visit to the museum he is entitled to. The pandemic has postponed the official inauguration, but the Israeli mentalist is certainly not one who lets himself be stopped by a virus. And for the moment it is he himself who accompanies small groups of lucky visitors on the one and a half hour tour.
“We have worked hard for years to renovate this millenary building, to secure it and obtain permits and licenses,” Geller told La Stampa. Years in which there was no shortage of surprises. It was mid-August 2018 when the psychic, during the restorations, had an intuition and brought to light, right under his feet, an Ottoman-era soap factory. To dowsing on behalf of oil and mining companies, Geller owes a good chunk of his income. But that of Jaffa was his first archaeological discovery. And after a thorough excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the archaeological site was integrated into the museum.
The variety of the collection makes heads spin. And each object – almost all received as a gift, some purchased by Geller himself to honor a sentimental bond – carries with it an incredible story. There is a Salvador Dali crystal ball that the psychic entertainer claims belonged to Leonardo da Vinci. There is the binoculars that belonged to Yitzhak Rabin, which Geller bought at an auction house. And again, a sculpture by Federico Fellini, the boxing gloves signed by Muhammad Ali, the shirt by Diego Armando Maradona, an easel used by Pablo Picasso, the bottle of Chanel perfume # 5 “found on Marilyn Monroe’s deathbed”, given to Geller by Joe DiMaggio. And the 500 room keys of the 500 different hotels in which he stayed, including the Prince of Savoy of Milan, each obtained in exchange for a folded spoon for the receptionist on duty.
Yes, because despite the much more mysterious and fictional deeds carried out by Geller since the 1970s, some examined and confirmed by the CIA, the most famous number of the illusionist always remains the same: bending a teaspoon with the power of thought. So much so that to signal the entrance to his museum there is a huge curved steel spoon, weighing eleven tons and over 16 meters long, certified by Guinness World Records as the largest in the world.
But it is not only the objects on display that stimulate interest. Those that the Israeli psychic has not yet publicly shared are perhaps the most intriguing. “Few people know that Elvis Presley was Jewish – says Geller – and I keep the proof, a Chai necklace”, that is a gold chain with a pendant in the shape of Hebrew letters, chet and yod, which together form the Hebrew word for “Life” that “he wore the night he died.” And then there is an unpublished and mysterious object that belonged to astronaut Edgar Mitchell, “my greatest spiritual teacher”, the commander of the Apollo 14 lunar module Antares in 1971 and the sixth man to walk on the Moon. “I can’t talk about it – he explains – but it has to do with the story I recently told The Sun”, the British tabloid to which Geller said: “I think aliens are studying us. I don’t know what they really want but I think they are preparing for contact. And it will be spectacular ». And while the mentalist showman is about to shoot a TV series for an English / Canadian co-production in his museum, he says that his most important project, now, is “to find the Ark of the Covenant”, the wooden chest of acacia with a golden lid in which, according to the Bible, the Tablets of the Law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai are kept. “He will be a historical Tsunami,” he swears.
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