Ogrish: The Exhibition

I've been following the Bodies: The Exhibition scandal off-and-on for a few years now, ever since I heard where their cadavers actually came from (torture voyeurism squick). Looks like there have finally been some developments:

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- Premier Exhibitions Inc., a leading provider of museum exhibitions around the world, settled a probe by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo over the origin of the cadavers in ``Bodies ... The Exhibition'' in New York City.

Premier will put $50,000 in escrow to provide ticket refunds to customers who say they wouldn't have attended the exhibition if they had known the questionable origins of the bodies and parts it displays, Cuomo said today in a statement.

The agreement ``brings an end to Premier's practice of using bodies of undocumented origins in their exhibitions,'' according to the statement. Premier must obtain documentation of the cause of death and origins of any new cadavers and body parts displayed in New York City, along with proof of consent. For any human remains already obtained, Premier must let people know it can't confirm they didn't belong to Chinese prisoners who may have been tortured and executed, as some advocacy groups have charged.

``Premier Exhibitions has profited from displaying the remains of individuals who may have been tortured and executed in China,'' Cuomo said in the statement. ``Despite repeated denials, we now know that Premier itself cannot demonstrate the circumstances that led to the death of the individuals.''

Katherine Morgenstern, a spokeswoman for Premier, said that Cuomo subpoenaed the Atlanta-based company in February seeking information on how the bodies in the exhibit were obtained.

Good times, good times.

Body Worlds is where it's at, anyway. Ten thousand clamoring pre-cadavers on a waiting list can't be wrong!