Hermitage cuts short Japan exhibition tour due to radiation fears

"“It was due to harmful rumors arising from the nuclear accident,” Katsutoshi Taniuchi, a curator at the prefectural Museum of Modern Art in the city, told AFP. “There is no safety problem at all in our city as far as radiation is concerned.”

More of this nonsense about " harmful rumors". Actually scientists are on the record for warning people to be cautious in a 250 km zone, and we know radiation has caused problems as far south ad Shizuoka. It didn't all just disappear. If the people don't fell safe or don't want their objects in an affected area, why is that a problem.

Oh wait I forgot, this is the same country that tells people eating cesium won't harm their health; its all just a "harmful rumor"! And to think nuclear physicists and engineers were highly concerned on march 12th about that when it was just a rumor there was danger.

Shame on Japan and anyone believing their nonsense.

“There is no safety problem at all in our city as far as radiation is concerned.”

Oh, yeah. I am sure this guy tested every foodstuff in Takasaki personally, imported and homegrown. Yeah. Nothing from Fukushima in his town either, and if there were, I am sure all the Russian staff read enough kanji to avoid buying it, and speak enough Japanese to avoid ordering such food from restaurants and the waitresses all know the caesium levels in each item on the menu. Yeah.

Japan will have to rely upon itself to survive because the world is boycotting it.

It is not as if the Russians don't know enough about radiation now is it?

Maybe Katsutoshi Taniuchi lives in a different world in which the meltdowns never happened and in which radioactivity has NOT been found in Yokohama,Tokyo,Shimane and Ehime prefectures.

I am sure that the Russian embassy has informed their citizens with regard to health and safety concerns based on facts, not on 'baseless rumors'

Just replace harmful rumours with radiation in any article about fukushima accident and things make more sense

Perhaps this Taniuchi fellow is not so dumb after all.

Don't forget that businesses that can prove their buisness suffered due to negative rumors are entitled to make a claim against TEPCO.

Who knows, maybe he even called the Russians to warn them about radiation, so that now his museum can claim all the lost revenue but he doesn't have to do any work like preparing for the exhibition and having to deal with all those pesky visitors.

@thepro -- Thank you -- that works much better!

To be fair, they are right when they say Takasaki has low radiation levels. However, judging by this new map released by MEXT, they are completely surrounded by high level areas. Oops!

http://radioactivity.mext.go.jp/ja/1910/2011/09/1910_092714.pdf

Probably the staff that travels with the exhibition didn't want to be exposed to the food from the area.

This is like a slap in the face for poor Japan. Take your crummy Hermitage back to Russia and say, over to where ever Chernobyl is and continue your museum tour there?? Not all of Japan is Fukushima, and the Russians should no better than to do this, causing more people here in the Tokyo area to have more fears and even panic.

Elbuda: "This is like a slap in the face for poor Japan."

No, it's a PERCEIVED slap in the face by Japan when Japan is pummeling its face in constantly and asking why others point out the bruises. If someone is wary or wants to avoid potential dangers -- and let's face it, the dangers exist -- they have every right to do so, bottom line, especially given the 'fluency' of the government and TEPCO about the whole fiasco.

It's a shame, to be sure, but as I said people can choose for themselves when they have the choice.

The State Hermitage Museum canceled an exhibition of Russian and European glass scheduled to run for three months from December in Takasaki,

Well, if Gunma was the best venue they could book for a solid 3 months, it wasn't worth the effort to begin with. I'm actually starting to suspect that is their real reason why they quit.

To illustrate my point to my JT browsers who have never been to Japan. It's like being forced to setup an exhibit in Philadelphia when you originally intended to do so in New York.

The exhibition was already held in Tokyo where radiation levels were higher than Takasaki City. Art museums usually have filtered air systems.

OK I was wrong, and now we have a mystery, why Gunma?

zichiSep. 30, 2011 - 08:06PM JST The exhibition was probably going to be held in Gunma, because someone there, an individual, a group, a newspaper or company, or something of them all, were prepared to sponsor the exhibition.

Do you think that the exhibition might be canceled simply because one of the sponsors suddenly withdraw or decided to pay less or something. Then, the excuse was invented.

Oh, yeah. I am sure this guy tested every foodstuff in Takasaki personally, imported and homegrown

And what has that to do with an art exhibition?

An exhibit was cancelled soon after the quake, scheduled for Okayama, it cost Okayama 2oku in losses.

no I don't. These kind of international exhibitions take years to plan and arrange. This was planned well before 3/11. Withdrawing sponsorship from an important international exhibition, would be a big "loss of face?"

I agree- I used to work for a company that organises exhibitions of mainly Impressionist paintings, brought from museums in Europe and the US, in Japan, and we did start planning years in advance. I never heard of a sponsor withdrawing funding partway through- in any case, by this point usually almost everything has been paid for.

One of the exhibitions I worked on was due to open in early April and had to cancel the first venue because the French museums involved were concerned about radiation- ironically the venue was Hiroshima. The second venue (I think it was Gifu) went ahead in June.

For those surprised that the artworks were in Gunma, it's typical for any exhibition of artworks from overseas here to travel to at least 4 or 5 regional venues (ours usually went to places like Ishikawa, Gifu, Okinawa, Kumamoto) in addition to the Tokyo area- you would be surprised how many people a name like the Hermitage brings in even in the more rural areas. Bringing the works only to one venue like Tokyo will usually mean that the exhibition doesn't recoup its costs, at least 4 or 5 are necessary to make it worthwhile for the organisers.

An exhibit was cancelled soon after the quake, scheduled for Okayama, it cost Okayama 2oku in losses.

From what I know of the costs of arranging exhibitions of painters like Picasso and Monet, that seems like an awful lot. What kind of exhibition was it?

It was due to harmful rumors arising from the nuclear accident

It was due to nuclear rumours arising from the harmful accident It was due to harmful nuclear arising from the rumour accident It was due to harmful accident arising from the nuclear rumour

There is no safety problem at all in our city, as far as radiation is concerned

There is no city problem at all in our concern, as far as radiation is safety There is no radiation problem at all in our city, as far as safety is concerned There is no concern at all in our city, as far as radiation is problem There is no concern problem in our city, as far as radiation is safety There is no safety concern in our city, as far as radiation is problem radiation is safety radiation is safety radiation is safety (fadeout)

In honour of Gil Scott Heron