Damien Hirst's Formaldehyde Artworks 'Posed No Risk to Public'

The scientific paper that claimed a 2012 exhibit of Damien Hirst works led to the release of formaldehyde fumes has been retracted by one if its authors.



The report said that gas levels at the Tate Modern exhibition, which included dead animals preserved in giant tanks, were above those legally permitted.

The claims were investigated by Hirst's Science Ltd company, which conducted more tests on his formaldehyde pieces. The results found there was "never any risk to the public," as was alleged.

It has led Professor Pier Giorgio Righetti, one of the authors of the paper published in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Analytical Methods  Journal, to acknowledge his paper as "inaccurate and unreliable."

A spokesperson for Science Ltd and Prof Righetti said that professor "regretted any alarm or concern the paper may have caused."

Tate Modern's Damien Hirst retrospective was the most-visited solo show and the second-most visited exhibition in the London gallery's history. It included a shark suspended in formaldehyde titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living plus a bisected cow and calf in four parts called Mother and Child (Divided).

Source: BBC

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