Japanese artist Takashi Murakami poses in the Hall of Mirrors at France's famed Palace of Versailles in June (Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images)The forthcoming Takashi Murakami exhibit set to open at the historic Palace of Versailles has sparked a loud protest by French traditionalists and conservative groups.

Earlier this summer, palace officials announced that Murakami would be the latest contemporary artist to be featured at the famed chateau outside of Paris. Past artists who have been featured at Versailles include American Jeff Koons and France's Xavier Veilhan.

As with the Koons exhibit, a host of traditional supporters of the historic venue have risen up in protest against the show by the Japanese pop artist, whose ebullient and colourful works are often inspired by manga and who has more recently branched out with commercial partnerships and ventures.

Several petitions protesting the show are gathering thousands of signatures online.

Versailles director and former French culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon has again defended the museum's showcase of the 47-year-old modern artist.

The protests "come from far-right fundamentalist circles and from very conservative circles" who see the museum as "a reliquary of nostalgia of [pre-revolution] Ancient Regime France, of a France that is turned in on itself and hostile to modernity," Aillagon told Agence France-Presse.

Takashi Murakami poses with his artwork Hiropon in London in 2009. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters)Though it is not included in the upcoming Versailles exhibit, some protesters have pointed out that Murakami's works such as the 1997 sculpture Hiropon — which depicts a large-busted, bikini-clad girl skipping through a "rope" of breast milk — as reasons why they feel he is unworthy of Versailles.

"These have no place in the royal apartments," Anne Brassie, one of the petition founders, told AFP.

Aillagon responded by saying the selected artworks are pieces that can be "seen by everyone" and noted that the goal of the series is to "give visitors to historic monuments the chance to discover art that is less familiar to them" as well as to attract contemporary art fans to Versailles.

The initial Koons exhibit was considered a massive success, drawing more than 250,000 people to the historic chateau in the first two months alone and prompting a one-month extension.

The Murakami exhibit runs at Versailles from Sept. 14 to Dec. 12.