May 29, 2008
Controversial "Bodies" Exhibit Agrees to Offer Refunds
Photograph by Benzadrine on Flickr
Did you venture to the South Street Seaport to see the Bodies Exhibit any time over the past three-plus years? If so, you're entitled to a refund because Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and exhibitor Premier agreed to a settlement after a disturbing 20/20 report suggested the bodies used were from executed Chinese prisoners who may have been tortured.
Premier licenses the bodies from Dalian Hoffen Bio Technique Company Limited, which "acquired the bodies indirectly from the Chinese Bureau of Police, which deemed them unclaimed at death." According to the AG's office, "The bodies were put through a process called 'plastination,' in which a cadaver is stripped of its skin, dissected to show a part of the internal anatomy and infused with plastic that is then hardened." Flashback: When the exhibit first opened in NYC in 2005, a representative told the NY Times it cost $25 million to get the bodies, "I am certain that all these specimens were legally obtained."
Now, Cuomo say, "Despite repeated denials, we now know that Premier itself cannot demonstrate the circumstances that led to the death of the individuals...This settlement is a start.” Premier said it was happy to reach a settlement and added, "We look forward to exhibiting our bodies show in New York for many years to come." Premier has put $50,000 in escrow; currently it's unclear how Bodies attendees can go about getting a refund.
| 
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Forget money - I want my skin back!
This has been obvious to me right from the start. I'm very pleased there has been a legal settlement and news story about it.
The whole thing is disgusting and goes against all the principles that this, and most other countries, stand for.
The only thing has been proved is that they can't prove where the bodies came from.
Why we should get our money back is beyond me.
I saw the exhibit right? Why am I getting a refund?
$27.50 to see that?
unless it was the real michael jordon with a basketball. I ain't paying that to see a bunch of asians holding a football, thinking, or dunking a basketball around.
this show is horrible and disgusting. no wonder it's at the south street seaport. manhattan's version of the ghetto coney island.
Me chinese, me make joke, me put enemies of the state that have been extraordinarily rendered by our government, flay them, and make them hold a football Heisman-style.
I knew before I went that these were former Chinese prisoners. It made it more interesting.
If only we treated our criminals like this there might be a lot less crime
hey, that's an nyu dorm in the background. LET THE FLAMING COMMENCE
desecration of the dead, period.
Pretty gross, but why a refund? Maybe a donation to Amnesty Intl or something?
The visible muscle tone of these cadavers proves the fair and adequate treatment of prisoners in China. If U.S. prisoners were put on similar display, we'd be treated to meth mouth, bitch tits and a blubbery "inner tube".
Why is anyone who went to see this entitled to their money back?
What a friggin waste of tax dollars.
...
...
Not fan of this "Art", but to think these may have been executed Prisoners is disturbing.
I'd like a return on my dollars never spent. How are they going to determine who went there or who didn't?
Let' see China was given 25 million dollars for
these murdered human cadavers as an art info event Crime does pay what an incentive to kill more prisoners there .This is a crime in itself that we
have this exhibit I guess the Pol Pot skulls at
Bergdorf Goodman is next maybe as mannequin heads.
^Bergdorf's nixed that idea for their "Dressed To Killing Fields" promotion a few years back, but there is a rumor going around that they intend to move ahead with the "Texas Barbecue Roundup" featuring life-like mannequins on lethal injection tables sporting the new Hilfiger line.
unless it was the real michael jordon with a basketball.
And why the heck does it matter who exactly it was? And why would you want to see that in the first place? Makes no sense.
I always suspected these cadavers might be immorally obtained. This is China where some fat @ss newly minted capitalist will do anything for a buck.
I thought this exhibit was sweet! I got my 3d illuminated mouse heart key chain when I left too...
As long as these bodies weren't robbed from graves who cares; they provide a visual understanding of the working of the human body. I'd still go again.
I loved the exhibit. The best part is at the end, when you get to handle to internal organs.
If this is how the Chinese government treats their own people, why should the USA care? The people are dead! Let their bodies be used to educate others.
I learned a lot looking at the lungs of a smoker versus a non smoker, or that body of the very obese woman.
It looks like Cuomo submitted to the politically correct threats of that racial hustler Chun "John" Liu and his merry gang of whiners.