Asbestos found on Dufy painting

The room where the painting is will be closed to the public

It has been discovered that one of the world's largest paintings is coated in hazardous asbestos.

La Fee Electricite, which measures 600 square metres (6,450 square feet) is a celebration of science and the power of electricity, on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

No other artwork has been found to contain asbestos so this procedure has no precedent and has had to be carefully planned down to the last detail

Spokesman for the Museum of Modern Art

Curators at the museum said work will begin in December to remove the cancer-causing mineral fibre from the back of the 250 wood panels that make up the painting.

The work is by Fauvist painter Raoul Dufy, who died aged 75 in 1953, for a Parisian electricity company to decorate its Hall of Light at a 1937 World Exhibition in Paris.

'No precedent'

"No other artwork has been found to contain asbestos so this procedure has no precedent and has had to be carefully planned down to the last detail," a museum official said.

"An art restorer will be on hand to oversee the work of the industrial asbestos removal team in order to ensure they are sensitive to the particular demands of this delicate job.

"The work will be carried out from behind the panels, where access is possible, and the temperature within an isolation zone set up around the painting will be carefully monitored," the official said.

The room where the painting is on show will be closed to the public while work is under way.

The project is expected to last seven months. The cost may be as high as seven million francs (£700,000), according to Le Parisien newspaper.

The panoramic oil painting chronicles the progress of science from ancient Greece to the 1930s. It took four and a half months for Dufy and his team of assistants to paint.

Asbestos was a popular insulation and fire retardant in the building industry after the Second World War.

It has now been found to cause lung disease and cancer, and all asbestos must now be removed under French law.