If you want to
learn more about the Antiquarium at Pompeii and the body casts
that were first displayed there, you will want to read Eugene
Dwyer's Pompeii's Living Statues:
The
Pompeii Antiquarium
is
not currently open to the public, though it may reopen in late
2010 or early 2011.
It once housed the first
plaster casts made in Pompeii. Although many other Pompeiian
treasures were exhibited here, the plaster casts of the bodies
were perhaps the largest draw.
Opened in 1861, the
antiquarium was destroyed by Allied air raids in 1943. It was
rebuilt after the war and reopened in 1948. Eventually, it was
closed again in 1978 for restoration. Over thirty years have
passed and the restoration to the antiquarium is still not
finished, although progress has been made--see the photo below. (If you want to read about the trials and tribulations of
Pompeii, here
is a translated article from Corriere della Serra, a
popular Italian newspaper from Milan. (Thank you, Rick Bauer for
the information.)
According to a
guidebook from the 1950s,
In the passage are
exhibited some of the gruesome casts of human bodies. They
have been taken by the simple and ingenious method of pouring
liquid plaster in the hollows that had been left in the layers
of ash. Death by asphyxia has stiffened these human shaped as
they were when they pantingly breathed their last, so as
dramatically to display to the onlooker's eyes the last
moments of the tragedy with which the life of the buried city
ended forever.
is
not currently open to the public, though it may reopen in late
2010 or early 2011.
It once housed the first
plaster casts made in Pompeii. Although many other Pompeiian
treasures were exhibited here, the plaster casts of the bodies
were perhaps the largest draw. 
