the scent of friedrichstrasse

From Chandler Burr's column in the New York Times T Magazine comes word of a scent exhibit - possibly the first of its kind: ‘‘If There Ever Was: An Exhibition of Extinct and Impossible Smells,’’ at The Reg Vardy Gallery in Sunderland, England.

Among the headspinning creations:

• Lethal Peruvian arsenic deposits
• Hiroshima
• A 16thC spell for eternal beauty (contents: murdered raven, almond oil)

and

• the scent of Berlin-Friedrichstrasse train station, the only connection to West Germany in the GDR.