The Louvre museum has been accused of "courting disaster" over plans to send works to Fukushima in a gesture of solidarity as experts claim they could return "radioactive".
The Louvre museum has been accused of
The Louvre's words of reassurance were also questioned by Roland Desbordes, an independent nuclear expert, who said: 'Radioactivity, present all around Fukishima, can come into the town depending on weather conditions.'
The world's most visited museum is due to send around 20 works in April to three towns in northern Japan, including Fukushima City, less than 40 miles from the site of a major nuclear power plant disaster last March triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.
Japanese authorities now declare the plant to be stable but admit it will take decades to decontaminate the surrounding areas and to decommission the site altogether.
Due to last five weeks, the exhibition will feature François Boucher's The Three Graces with Amor, François-André Vincent's Portrait of Three Men as well as statuettes including an ancient Egyptian one of the goddess Isis.
It will be called: "Meeting, Love, Friendship, Solidarity in the Louvre collections." The museum insists the works are in no danger, that the towns where they will be exhibited "present no abnormal radioactivity levels" and the museums to house the works are "untouched by the earthquake and tidal wave".
It said the exhibition was a mark of solidarity with a "country to which it is linked by reciprocal ties of long-standing friendship and loyalty."
But art and atomic experts insist the Louvre is placing France's artistic heritage at unnecessary risk.
Leading the charge is Didier Rykner, head of The Art Tribune website.
While describing the museum's intention "laudable", he said it was not "the Louvre's role to come to the aid, via exhibitions, of populations that are victims of cataclysms."
"(If so), why not do it in all countries hit by earthquakes, forest fires, volcanic eruptions or even wars? ... Why doesn't the Louvre just send the works onto Bagdad?," he complained.
France's nuclear safety and protection institute, IRSN, had advised French citizens only to visit the areas for essential reasons and to "regularly pass the vacuum cleaner over the surface of furniture and carpets" in the fallout zone.
"What about the paintings and 16th century Flemish tapestry that the Louvre is sending? Will they 'regularly' vacuum these?," asked Mr Rykner.
The Louvre's words of reassurance were also questioned by Roland Desbordes, an independent nuclear expert, who said: "Radioactivity, present all around Fukishima, can come into the town depending on weather conditions."
"It is totally possible that these works will come back slightly contaminated. Then what will they do?"
Decontamination would be a "complex and delicate" operation, he added.
Mr Rykner also accused the Louvre of staging a low cost exhibition that "recycled" a recent one in northern France and whose "scantiness" was an artistic "insult".
"The population surely has other worries than to come and see 20 works whose arrangement makes absolutely no sense."
NOTE: France is riddled with Nuke Plants, I don't know of the damage from Chernobyl, living in Southern Germany at the time it was considerable and still is....so why invite more radiation?
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