France: Guillotine returns for first museum display since its use was outlawed

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France: Guillotine returns for first museum display since its use was outlawed

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20 March,2010 07:34 am

After two hundred years of debate and discussion, the guillotine received its death sentence in France in 1981. Associated by many with the Reign of Terror in 1793-4, and once a popular spectator sport, the use of the national razor was finally outlawed following a proposition by Minster of Justice Robert Badinter, previously defence lawyer for some of the of the guillotine's unfortunate victims. And now one of the last death machines is on display to the public as the centrepiece of a new exhibition at Paris' famed Musee d'Orsay, named Crime and Punishment after Dostoyevsky's weighty tome, and the brainchild of Badinter himself.The guillotine on display was made by Leon Alphonse Berger in 1872. Guillotinings used to be headline news and public events, with crowds including young children and old ladies gathering to shout and cheer as the executions took place. The last public use of the guillotine was in 1939, but the machines continued to be used behind closed doors until 1977 when convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi was beheaded. Abolition of the death penalty four years later made the guillotine redundant. The exhibition brings together various paintings and drawings of violent crime and forms of punishments including the death penalty, as well as other related items including the guillotine itself, and even a prison door upon which the condemned left their final marks. The exhibition also examines other forms of the death penalty including hanging, the electric chair, and perhaps the most famous of all - crucifixion. Visitors to the exhibition were largely in favour of the somewhat controversial subject matter.