Deformed foetuses, dissected brains or even mummified busts: the Museum of Human Beings in Bogota houses treasures of human anatomy, between scientific interest and horror.
On a squalid street in the Santa Fe district, a hub of drug trafficking and prostitution located on the outskirts of the center of the Colombian capital, Melba Leon, 62, welcomes visitors to the old two-story house of her father, the doctor Alfredo Leon, founder of the museum in 1973. Supported by a group of scientists, he recovered from researchers and medical universities the 500 pieces, most of them human, half of which are on display today.
A cabinet of curiosities that has become the largest collection in the country according to its director, who transmits with passion to visitors, medical students or simply curious, the story of these deaths.
A place at "
the confluence
" between the "
spirits of the cemetery
" of Bogota (located just behind the museum), the "
terrible
" neighborhood in which it is located and "
the energies of the bodies
", explains Malba Leon under his white blouse.
As a result, when visitors enter the rooms with their mobile phones or take photos, “
the positive electromagnetism of the bodies
” interferes with the “
electronegative
” devices.
“
The bulbs are flickering
” and “
the whole house starts shaking
, ”says Ms. Leon.
Effects of drugs or inbreeding
That day, the spirits are calm.
About twenty nursing students came to visit this cave of Ali Baba of human anatomy.
Four female students remain glued to the body of a two-headed Siamese baby.
"
It's crazy how the body is able to deform, to mutate
," exclaims one of them, before the small group begins to debate how to separate them.
Next to it, deformed fetuses about fifteen centimeters tall are displayed on a shelf.
The ribs stand out, the small arms are spread in all directions, the lower half of the body gives way to a heap of bloody viscera.
Their little faces are desperate.
Some seem to be screaming at the top of their lungs.
These malformations have their origin in the drug or alcohol consumption of their mother, or because of their consanguinity, explains the guide in a professorial tone.
The bodies have been mummified for seventy years for some.
But here, no strips: after having removed their fat, the bodies or the fetuses are coated with various chemicals which allow them to be preserved.
Read alsoOur Body, the forbidden exhibition
The highlight of the visit, half of a skull immersed in formalin reveals all the details of the brain of a middle-aged man.
“
This is where everyone faints
,” warns Malba Leon.
Next to this anatomy museum in Bogota, many corpse exhibitions are held all over the world, such as
Body Worlds
, the most visited traveling exhibition in the world.
In 2019, a similar Chinese exhibition titled
Bodies: The Exhibition
made a stopover in Bogota.
In France as in other countries, these traveling exhibitions of human corpses for commercial purposes are prohibited, in particular because of the dubious origin of the corpses sold by Chinese companies.
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