Swiss museum cancels Shanghai Einstein show; refused to merge with Confucius

The Historical Museum of Bern, Switzerland canceled plans to bring its exhibition on physicist Albert Einstein to Shanghai due to disagreements with the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, the BBC reported. The Shanghai museum had suggested that the exhibit on Einstein be merged with a display about Chinese philosopher Confucius, and also wanted to remove all references to World War I from the displays. Einstein was said to have been in Shanghai when he first heard he had won the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics. The exhibition has traveled from Bern and was displayed in Beijing and Guangdong before going to Hong Kong, where it is currently housed. Beijing authorities had similarly attempted to delete historical content from the exhibit, but relented when the Swiss museum threatened to cancel the exhibit; the show went on to attract 200,000 visitors.