New twist in saga means building used by Marie Curie will stay at original site

Plans to move the Parisian building in which Marie Skłodowska-Curie and her colleagues prepared and stored radioactive material brick-by-brick to a nearby location have been scrapped.

The Pavillon des Sources is one of three buildings that made up the Institut du Radium, which has since merged with the Curie Foundation to form the Curie Institute – the organisation with responsibility for managing the site.

In January, it was announced by the French minister of culture, Rachida Dati, that the Pavillon would be dismantled, decontaminated and reconstructed ‘stone by stone’ at a location a ‘few dozen metres’ away. It was said that in its new location it would become an enlarged wing of the Musée Curie and a new building, constructed in its place, would house the chemical biology and cancer scientific project. It was originally set to be demolished completely but these plans were strongly opposed by defenders of Parisian heritage.