The Shark Museum is a small private museum owned by shark specialist Alessandro De Maddalena and his wife, biologist Alessandra Baldi. The museum is dedicated to Alessandra’s father, Sauro Baldi (La Spezia, 1935 – Milan, 2018), without whom the museum would not exist. He was a loving father and an erudit man capable of transmitting his deep love for science, archaeology and art.
The Shark Museum is located in Simon’s Town, in the Western Cape, South Africa. It’s a 44 km – 50 minute drive from the center of Cape Town. The museum overlooks the magnificent False Bay, famous for its rich marine fauna that includes great white sharks, broadnose sevengill sharks, bronze whalers, African penguins, Cape fur seals, southern right whales, humpback whales, Bryde’s whales, long-beaked common dolphins and many other species.
The early XX Century building hosting the exhibit, renamed Villa Stellaris, was renovated between 2020 and 2021 and the Museum opened in December 2021. The museum features a small permanent exhibit and a specialised library. Lectures in shark biology are regularly hosted at the museum, that has a capacity of 15 seats. The museum’s mission is to increase knowledge of these beautiful predators that have a key role in the marine ecosystems. The museum is a member of the South African Museums Association.