The controversial Human Body exhibition in Bucharest attracted over 86,000 visitors between March 22 and August 4, 2013 - the last day of the exhibition. Over 9,000 of the total visitors were aged between seven and 18.

The Human Body exhibition, which was on display at the Antipa Museum in Bucharest for over four months, included 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 exhibition 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 authors of the open letter cited a series of articles in the international media, which called 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.

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