PARIS, (Reuters) – An exhibition of human bodies, which has travelled the world and been seen by millions, is indecent and must shut down, a French judge ordered yesterday.
The landmark decision is based on a new law that regulates how corpses can be disposed of and could force all French museums to withdraw bodies or skeletons from display.
The “Our Body” show features several cadavers that have been flayed to reveal the internal workings of a body.
French human rights groups condemned the initiative, repeating accusations from previous such shows that the unidentified bodies might have been Chinese execution victims. Two groups took the organisers to court and in a ruling released yesterday, Judge Louis-Marie Raingeard said the exhibition denigrated the human body, without entering into the origin of the bodies.
“The law says a body should be in a cemetery,” the judge said, giving the organisers 24 hours to shut down the exhibition or face a fine of 20,000 euros ($25,810) each day they refused to comply with the order.
Some of the corpses have been cut into neat cross sections, others are displayed in varying degrees of dissection. The flayed skin of one cadaver is laid out across a cabinet case, complete with pubic hair and penis.
