The total number of people who visited the Antipa Museum in Bucharest amounted to over 42,000 in the period between March 22 and April 7, 2013, of which 25,900 visited the permanent exhibition, according to the museum’s statistics.

The Human Body exhibition, currently ongoing at the Antipa Museum and which stirred controversy, attracted over 16,000 visitors in this period. Of the total number, 9,200 visitors were adults, 4,500 were students, while the number of pensioners and university students that visited the exhibition amounted to some 2,400. However, the statistics show that no children aged under 7 visited the Human Body exhibition. All data presented by the museum were obtained by monitoring the tickets sold in the period between March 22 and April 7.

The Human Body exhibition, which will be on display at the Antipa Museum until June 30, 2013, has also raised some controversy in Romania. Just days before the exhibition was set to open at the museum in Bucharest, a group of associations sent an open letter to the museum’s director, saying the macabre show should be stopped. The exhibition includes over 200 items – real human bodies, that through organs and tissue dissection offer a real-life perspective of the human body, via the plastination technique, a scientific process that permanently preserves human tissue using liquid silicone rubber.

The authors of the open letter cite a series of articles in the international media, which call in question the correctness of information given by the exhibition curators, who say the individuals’ identities and ages are unknown and they died of natural causes. However, 2008 and 2010 articles in international media claimed the bodies were in fact Chinese prisoners who were executed. Read more here: Exhibition with preserved real human bodies causes controversy in Romania too.

Also, earlier this month, Romania’s Education Ministry has asked school inspectorates and schools to decide via their boards whether to organize class trips to visit this exhibition, and to have signed agreement from parents in case they do organize the trip. More here: Romanian Education Ministry asks schools to approve, parents to sign off class visits to ‘controversial’ Human Body exhibition.

Tickets for The Human Body exhibition cost between RON 32 and RON 60 for individuals and from RON 85 to RON 135 for groups. For groups of over 10 children the price is RON 30 per person. Tickets can be purchased from the Antipa Museum, Germanos, Orange and Vodafone stores, Carturesti and Humanitas bookshops, or online here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Corina Chirileasa/Romania-Insider.com)