The Paris building used by Marie Curie ‘will not be destroyed’ but will be moved

The Curie Museum said Marie Curie trained people there to make radium capsules. (document)

Paris France:

A small building in Paris used by double Nobel laureate Marie Curie will be moved rather than demolished, French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said on Wednesday, hoping to end a months-long row.

Dati told France Internationale that the Fountain Pavilion “will not be destroyed” but “moved a few meters…brick by brick”.

Institut Curie plans to build a high-tech cancer research center in Paris’ tourist hotspot Latin Quarter.

But history buffs have protested against the demolition of a building they say was crucial to Marie Curie’s pioneering work on radiation more than 100 years ago.

Dati’s culture ministry predecessor, Rima Abdel Malak, shelved the plan earlier this month while seeking a compromise.

Dati said that under the new agreement, “the anti-cancer center will be able to be developed and modernized”.

Thierry Philip, director of the Institut Curie, insisted that Curie himself only used the Pavillon des Sources to store radioactive waste.

But the Curie Museum said she was there to train people to make radium capsules used to disinfect the wounds of World War I casualties.

“This is an important part of the Marie Curie Historical Laboratory,” activist Baptiste Gianeselli, who opposes the project, told AFP in December.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has approved the demolition of the Pavillon des Sources, as her archrival Dati hopes to unseat her in the 2026 municipal elections.

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