This antiques dealer created a vampire and paranormal art museum in his Bucks home

Meet Edmondo Crimi, owner of Best of France Antiques in Doylestown and the creator of VAMPA, a new museum of vampire and paranormal activity art.

I first spoke with Edmondo Crimi in July, when I was trying to get to the bottom of why some large dinosaur sculptures had suddenly appeared on the roof of a Center City high-rise.

Crimi, who has owned Best of France Antiques in Doylestown for 29 years, sold the sculptures and told me he still had a bunch left on his property. Then, he offered some information I was not expecting.

“I just got back from a six-day course on exorcisms in Rome,” he said, “and I’m going to open a vampire and paranormal art museum in the fall.”

For a conversation that began with dinosaurs, it certainly was taking an interesting turn.

Last week, I met Crimi and toured VAMPA (Vampire Art Museum and Paranormal Activity), the museum he has created on the first floor of his home, next to his eclectic antiques store.

A devout Catholic, Crimi has long been interested in how the battle between good and evil influences art. The museum — a project that’s percolated in his head for years — will open Oct. 28.

“The purpose of the museum is not in any way to glorify evil but to make people aware of evil so they can be hypervigilant in fighting it,” he said.

I went in imagining the museum would be a room or two with paintings of angels and demons on the wall, but given the amount of times I said “Oh, wow!” and “That’s creepy as hell!” during the course of our interview (more than a dozen, according to my transcript), VAMPA clearly exceeded my expectations.

The museum spans eight ornate rooms and displays thousands of unusual objects and artwork related to demons, demonic possession, vampires, skeletons, witchcraft, creepy dolls, and angels. Crimi declined to reveal the worth of the collection but said most objects date back to the 18th and 19th centuries.

There’s a wooden rocking chair with human skeleton carvings that supposedly belonged to Vincent Price, more than 500 instruments for killing vampires (which were once believed to be demons), an exorcism chair, Ouija boards, a voodoo kit that allegedly belonged to Marie Laveau, dozens of paintings that will haunt your nightmares, and pieces Crimi believes are demonically possessed.

One refurbished closet is filled to the brim with dolls that would make Chucky shudder (and made two people faint, according to Crimi). Then there’s a red basement door with peep holes, where you can look down and see a large statue of Baphomet, a horned pagan idol, awash in red light.

Some items are from Crimi’s personal collection, but many have been loaned to him by people who don’t want them in their homes anymore. One of his favorite pieces is a wooden sculpture he calls “La Casa Diablo” that appears to show demons entering the gates of hell. Crimi said his cats won’t go near it.

“It was loaned to me by a couple who had a lot of negative experiences when they inherited this piece,” he said. “I blessed the entire case with holy water and we’re keeping it under this case the whole time.”

The final room is dedicated to the Archangel Michael (“He’s my guy,” Crimi said), and unlike the other rooms in the museum, it’s well lit and features heavenly imagery.

“This is like the purification room,” Crimi said. “I ended it with the Archangel Michael to show the power of good over evil.”

Crimi’s big secret is that he designed the museum as a bait and switch.

“I do not glorify the occult whatsoever, but people are fascinated by it,” he said. “So this gets the attention of younger people and hopefully it brings them in the right direction towards God and the light side. That’s how the museum ends, you know, really in a prayer towards God.”

Crimi, 65, is a divorced father of three and a native of Brooklyn, where he grew up in an Italian Catholic family and developed a strong and unwavering faith.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that demons exist and there’s no doubt in my mind that God exists,” he said. “And there’s no doubt in my mind that they both don’t like each other.”

A parishioner at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Lambertville, Crimi is also a karate and kendo instructor. He said he’s taught martial arts to many priests and bishops, and has maintained friendships with them as a result.

Earlier this year, he was accepted to a course on exorcisms at the Sacerdos Institute in Rome, where he was one of the few lay people in attendance. Crimi said he has witnessed exorcisms (which are done by priests) and been involved in prayers of liberation (which can be done by laypeople) but declined to discuss details.

“I’ve seen it and it’s true and it’s no bulls—,” he said. “Exorcism is really a beautiful operation trying to take a demon out of a person.”

Crimi said his friends in the church haven’t had any issues with his museum. He said those who understand his faith recognize its purpose and others have told him it’s better to have these objects in his hands rather than out in the world, where they could be used for nefarious purposes.

Despite living among thousands of strange objects, some of which he said he has seen move on their own and others which he has heard go bump in the night, Crimi said he isn’t afraid.

“These are just items unless they’re used by people with bad intentions,” he said.

VAMPA, located at 3686 Doylestown-Buckingham Pike, Doylestown, does not have a website yet. It opens Oct. 28 and will be open every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through spring. Admission is $15 and the phone number is 215-345-4253.