For all but the celibate, fizzled romances are a simple fact of life. When a relationship dies, it casts a pall on everything, even the belongings we cherish. What were once the gifts of a mate—a teddy bear, a favorite T-shirt, a set of apartment keys—quickly become memento mori, grim reminders of the relationship’s fate. A pair of shared socks is never so sinister as when viewed by a lover scorned.

The Museum of Broken Relationships, based in Croatia, acknowledges this truth and here with supplies a solution: Jilted exes are invited to put their stuff on display. Not only does this rid them of the painful object, but it allows others to commemorate it. The result is meant to be cathartic, and judging by the museum’s growing collection—it is.

Exhibits may be viewed online and vary from the quotidian (a cell phone, a wallet, a bitter b&w wedding photo) to the bizarre (a hatchet, a set of fuzzy handcuffs, a prosthetic leg). Each one is accompanied by a story which, however brief, conveys some sense of context or history. The leg, for instance, belonged to a Croatian veteran who fell in love with his nurse while recovering in a Zagreb hospital. Once the couple split, he felt he ought to abandon the limb, which no doubt was sodden with unpleasant memories. As he puts it (rather blackly) on the MBR website: “The prosthesis endured longer than our love. It was made of sturdier material!”

Much of the museum’s collection is currently on-tour, with stops scheduled in Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia, Singapore, the US (San Francisco), and Sweden. Not only can you view it, you can contribute to it. The MBR welcomes submissions, and even offers recovering lovers the opportunity to host the collection in their own studio space. Unlike the pain of breaking up, the elation of getting over it is not confined to two people.