LONDON: A British museum is covering up its collection of ancient Egyptian mummies following visitor complaints about them going on show naked, it said Wednesday.
Two unwrapped mummies and one partially wrapped mummy out of 11 on display at The Manchester Museum in northwest England were covered after comments were received that they should be treated with more respect and dignity.
The mummies will be kept under wraps temporarily while a public consultation is carried out about the best way to display human remains at the center, said Deputy Director Piotr Bienkowski.
This is an interim measure designed to find out public reaction because of the negative comments we have been getting, especially about the unwrapped mummies, he told AFP by telephone.
We collect visitor comments on a regular basis and over the last few months there have been an awful lot of people questioning the public and educational value of showing such mummies.
He said that public perception of displaying human remains, particularly those from the United States, Australia and New Zealand, had shifted and questions are now being asked why Egyptian remains are treated differently.
British public opinion had also been affected by recent revelations about the unauthorized detention by pathologists of children s organs at British hospitals.
Bienkowski accepted that covering the mummies was slightly provocative but said it was designed to generate debate and to determine whether the museum s policy on displaying human remains should be applied consistently.
Reaction on the museum s weblog showed that many Egyptologists are against the move. One respondent called it totally misguided. Another called it misinformed while a third called it a step backwards.
The chairman of the Manchester Ancient Egypt Society, Bob Partridge, called the decision ridiculous and that he was almost at a loss for words. If the university museum is to continue its policy of education and informing visitors, then covering up the mummies is not achieving this end, and is making the museum a subject of ridicule, he wrote on the site.
The Manchester Museum is home to one of Britain s largest collections of artifacts from ancient Egypt, with about 20,000 objects. -AFP
