The Museum of Failure is a collection of failed products and services. The touring exhibition showcases failures to provide visitors a learning experience about the important role of failure for innovation and to encourage organizations to become better at learning from failure. The exhibition first opened on June 7, 2017 in Helsingborg, Sweden. The exhibit reopened at Dunkers Kulturhus on June 2, 2018 before closing in January 2019. A temporary exhibit opened in Los Angeles in December 2017. The Los Angeles museum is on Hollywood Blvd. in the Hollywood & Highland Center. The exhibit opened January – March 2019 at Shanghai, No.1 Center (上海第一百货). And in December 2019 a smaller version opened in Paris, France at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie along with other interesting failure-related exhibitions for the “Festival of Failures” (Les Foirés festival des flops, des bides, des ratés et des inutiles,)

The growing collection consists of over seventy failed products and services from around the world. Every item provides insight into the risky business of innovation. Some examples of the items on display: Apple Newton, Bic for Her, Google Glass, N-Gage, lobotomy instruments, Harley-Davidson Cologne, Kodak DC-40, Sony Betamax, Lego Fiber Optics, the My Friend Cayla talking doll and Paolo Macchiarini’s infamous plastic trachea.

The museum has received international attention for its unusual collection.

The concept of the museum was inspired by Samuel West’s 2016 visit to Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, Croatia. Museum founder and curator Samuel West reportedly registered a domain name for the museum, and later realized he had misspelled the word “museum”.

The museum was partially funded by the Swedish Innovation Authority (Vinnova).