2024-01-05 22:30:00
Demolition work was planned with the aim of replacing the Pavillon des Sources, historically linked to Marie Curie, with “the first biological chemistry center for cancer in Europe” desired by the Curie Institute. A project that unleashes passions, which the Minister of Culture put on hold on Friday January 5.
Demolishing illustrious old stones to advance science? The controversy has become political. On the one hand, there are those who think that it would be a stain on the memory of Marie Curie to destroy the Pavillon des Sources, a small two-story stone and brick building belonging to a group of three others which constitute the Institute. Curie in the Latin Quarter; on the other, there is precisely the Institut Curie, and those who consider that scientific research is more important than heritage.
Another solution ?
Rima Abdul Malak, Minister of Culture, chose to stop the work on the edge : “I spoke this morning with Thierry Philip, president of the Institut Curie. We agreed that he suspend the demolition of the Pavillon des Sources to give himself time to examine, with the stakeholders and my colleague Sylvie Retailleau , any possible alternative,” she said. written on (Twitter).
On the site, located on the Sainte-Geneviève mountain and a stone’s throw from the Pantheon, the Institut Curie would like to see a five-story building, approximately 2,000 m² in surface area, to house “the first biological chemistry center for cancer in Europe”.
“We discussed with serenity on the complex debate around an essential scientific project, which must remain on the Sainte-Geneviève mountain, and on the memorial issue which arouses emotion today,” indicated the president of the Institute. According to him, the Pavillon des Sources would not be so valuable historically speaking, because it would in fact be a former storage place for radioactive waste which is now empty. He emphasizes that the Curie Pavilion, the “real” Marie Curie laboratory, is not threatened.
Except that the Curie Museum does not have the same opinion. On her website, we read that in this Pavilion of Sources, the scientist “formed a team intended to manufacture radium emanation bulbs”, used in “military hospitals to sanitize war wounds” from 1914- 18.
“It was an essential part of Marie Curie’s historical laboratory,” argued Baptiste Gianeselli, who campaigns against the project, supporting photos, texts and testimonies, as reported by AFP.
“If an alternative solution can be found on the Sainte-Geneviève mountain, the Institut Curie will accept it. If this is not the case, the debate between memory and living science will have to be resolved calmly,” insists Thierry Philip, who assures “to make laboratories available for researchers in the coming months”.
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