What a dreadful shame they ripped out the original instruments for the tiny scrapes of 50-year-old Radium paint left on them. Those dials were a danger to no-one except the poor people that painted them back in the war.,(reply>), @Frosted Butts - Yes... but "far more" than infintesimal is still infinitesimal. I agree that leftover radium paint does actually pose "some" danger, and I really, really hope that those instrument dials were properly disposed of (a process that itself poses some risks to those involved). But there are a lot of different ways of dealing with a problem like this, and antique clockmakers have to deal with it all the time. It would have involved no more danger to decontaminate those dials and restore them than the exposure caused by removing them. People hear the word "radiation" and tend to freak out rather than looking into what the actual best course of action would be.<br>(Of course, I have no way of knowing, the museum "might" have analysed all of the options from preserving them in place untouched behind glass, to decontaminating them in place, to removing, decontaminating, and then returning them. But they did not choose any of those options, and I have no proof they even considered any of them),(reply>), ..You realize that if the paint is flaking off or turning to dust it's far more dangerous, right?