Russian Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin ordered a probe into the exhibition to assess its “goals, content and purpose” as well as its compliance with Russian law, the investigative body said in a statement Wednesday.
Russia will probe an artistic exhibition of preserved human corpses after the display sparked an uproar among conservative religious groups and public figures.
German anatomist Gunter von Hagens’ traveling “Body Worlds” exhibition opened at Moscow’s VDNKh exhibition center on March 12. Its display of donated human bodies and organs aims to educate visitors “by looking inside a stranger’s body to discover our own in a completely new way.”
The inquiry by the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, follows negative comments toward the exhibition in the media as well as petitions calling for its closure, the statement said.
“According to public figures, the exhibition violates moral values, expresses a clear disrespect for society and can be regarded as an insult to the religious feelings of believers,” it said.
Violating moral values and insulting religious feelings are both criminal offenses under Russian law.
The conservative Orthodox group Sorok Sorokov (Forty Forties) had sent a request to the General Prosecutor’s Office to investigate “Body Worlds” while presidential human rights council head Valery Fadeyev also called for a legal assessment, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.
“Body Worlds” was first displayed in Tokyo in 1995 and has been shown in 35 countries worldwide since then, though not without controversy. Some 19,000 people have donated their bodies to the exhibition since the 1980s.
Mysterious Head Sculpture Captivates St. Petersburg
A mysterious antique head that appeared on the shores of St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island this month has quickly become a social-media sensation — but no one knew where it came from, until now.
The strange art object, placed on a sandy shore with Soviet-era apartment buildings looming on the horizon reminded locals of the surrealism of Salvador Dali’s paintings, while others saw references to “The Lord of the Rings” movie franchise or the famous head sculpture in Krakow, Poland. The mystery of its appearance only added to its allure, with locals joking that someone “lost their head.”
The local MR7 news website finally uncovered the head’s mysterious origins this month: it once had a home in the offices of another St. Petersburg publication, the Sobaka.ru news website.
Sobaka had used it as a decoration during last year’s party for its 50 Most Famous People in St. Petersburg list, with guests posing in front of the infamous head and posting pictures on social media, MR7 said.
MR7 reported that the sculpture, reportedly made of foam, was first found near a dumpster on Uralskaya Street near Sobaka’s offices this spring before it disappeared for months, reappearing on Vasilievsky Island on Dec. 10.
In the weeks since it was dropped on Vasilievsky Island, it has become Instagram fodder for St. Petersburg locals, giving it a second life.
The artist behind the head, Vera Martynov, shared on Facebook her frustration that her work had been dumped in the trash, saying that she would have rather taken the head home with her.
