The Museum of Broken Relationships in Los Angeles examines the meaning of romantic objects after the love is lost, writes Elizabeth Sleith While we're all still reeling from Britain's break-up with Europe, lovers of self-help-slash-travel-writing had some horrid news to process this week: love guru Elizabeth Gilbert's marriage is over.In 2006, the US writer turned her cross-continental quest for healing from divorce into the bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, which famously ends with her finding another man. Gilbert announced this week that she and the man, whom she wed in 2007, were separating.story_article_left1With all these battered hearts about, there's never been a more fitting time to open a spot called The Museum of Broken Relationships, which happened in Los Angeles recently - ironically in the former premises of lingerie retailer Frederick's of Hollywood (which has since gone online).The museum features a collection that studies "failed relationships and their ruins" and says it offers people "a chance to overcome an emotional collapse through creation: by contributing to the museum's collection".This is in fact the second branch of the museum, the first being in Zagreb, Croatia. Just as Gilbert's book was starting to fly off the shelves, an artist couple in the midst of their own breakup pondered what people do with the objects that were once meaningful in their relationships.They asked friends to contribute items from their own failed love affairs, and used these to create exhibitions.Those on display in LA include a pair of dried-up contact lenses the accompanying note says, "I continued to save them, curled up, on my own bedside table"; and a painstakingly hand-drawn comic, which the donor says took her all summer to draw, "and he left it in my car".All donors must include a story about their item but they are displayed anonymously.Museum director Alexis Hyde said a call for donations earlier this year had produced close to 300 items, including belly-button fluff, silicone breast implants and a melted cellphone.The museum doesn't turn much down unless the objects are racist, blatantly cruel or have the potential to reveal someone's identity...