Montreal's wax museum is closing for good, and looking for new homes for its statues

Montreal's Grévin wax museum announced this week it would be closing for good due to a drop in visitors during the pandemic.

Located on the fifth floor of the Eaton Centre, the museum used to welcome about 150,000 visitors per year.

After COVID-19 forced the closure of many non-essential services, the museum saw a huge drop in business.

"We were closed for 50 weeks from 2020 to the end of February 2021. And since the reopening at the end of February, attendance did not meet our expectations," said Kathleen Payette, the museum's director.

Since reopening, Payette said the museum had been drawing about a third of the normal amount of visitors and the decision to close was financially motivated.

The museum, a smaller version of the famous Musée Grévin in Paris, was only open for eight years.

It holds wax statues bearing the likenesses of local celebrities like Céline Dion, Ricardo Larrivée, Julie Snyder, Guylaine Tremblay, Jean Béliveau and Maurice Richard.

There are over 100 wax figures in the museum's collection, which are now in need of a new home.

Payette told Radio-Canada the museum has reached out to some of the celebrities to ask if they want to claim their wax figure and take it home.

Some wax statues will go to the Musée Grévin in Paris while others will be donated to Quebec museums.

The museum has already started to dismantle its exhibition, as it must vacate the premises by the end of October.