France's Louvre museum plans to send more than 20 artworks to Japan, including Fukushima prefecture, near the stricken nuclear plant, in order to show solidarity with the disaster-hit country.
The exhibition will run from April 20 to September 17 in Japan's Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, said Jean-Luc Martinez, director of the department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities at the Louvre.
The exhibition, to be titled 'Meeting, Love, Friendship, Solidarity in the Louvre collections', will feature 23 paintings, sculptures, drawings and other works from different eras and civilisations.
"Neither the works nor staff from the Louvre who will accompany them on a voluntary basis will be endangered," said Martinez, adding that the level of radioactivity was no higher than in a Paris museum.
The show was organised as a gesture of solidarity with the Japanese, after last year's massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the northeast of Japan, sparking the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The decision by the museum has been heavily criticised, however.
The Telegraph reports that art enthusiasts and nuclear experts have warned the museum not to send the artworks to the prefecture as they might return to France radioactive.
Nuclear expert Roland Desbordes is quoted as saying: "Radioactivity, present all around Fukishima, can come into the town depending on weather conditions. It is totally possible that these works will come back slightly contaminated."
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