Dead Bodies On Display At Atrium Mall

CHESTNUT HILL (CBS) -- At the Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill you can find holiday decorations hung, decorated Christmas trees and cadavers.  Yes, dead bodies. 

A new exhibit opens Saturday where the Abercrombie and Fitch store used to be.

Bodies Human, Anatomy in Motion is the name of the exhibit.  13 full bodies and 100 body parts from real humans will be on display. 

"The goal of exhibit like this is to learn," says exhibit director Tom Mulholland. 

These kinds of displays have been shown in museums and stand along store fronts, but how did it wind up next door to a Pottery Barn for Kids in a mall? 

"It's very popular for a mall to support an exhibit like this because it has space foot traffic and everyone knows where it's at." 

Heading into the busiest shopping season of the year lots of people will see this exhibit, and on the eve of its opening Aaron Leiberman, out shopping with his two girls, was caught off guard. 

"It is out of place a little bit. It's typically in a museum or another venue," says Leiberman. 

One young shopper saw the display and said, "Probably not a mall. That's kind of awkward, like a body in the mall kind of weird."

Mulholland admits this exhibit might not be for everyone, but the majority of the people who come through leave fascinated, he says. 

"There's thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands of people similar to this and love it and there are a few hundred against it. That's okay. Everyone has the right to their opinion," says Mulholland, who was putting on the finishing touches before the exhibit opens.

Doors open on Anatomy in Motion Saturday November 13 and runs through the end of March.