Rock and Roll Hall of Fame invites you to meat Lady Gaga's dress

(CNN) -- The infamous meat dress Lady Gaga was grilled for wearing at the MTV Video Music Awards last year will be unveiled Thursday as the main course in a sizzling new display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It will join the "Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power" exhibit at the hall in Cleveland, Ohio.

The dress, once made of juicy cuts of raw Argentinean beef, was treated and preserved by a taxidermist over a number of weeks.

"The dress was kept in a meat locker until the treatment was ready to begin," said a statement from the hall. "It was then placed in a vat of chemicals and, while still pliable, was put on a body form and allowed to dry."

To keep the dress from looking like a large collection of beef jerky, it was painted to look like fresh meat.

Lady Gaga wore the dress when she accepted the award for Best Video of the Year for "Bad Romance" at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. It was a collaboration by designers Franc Fernandez and Nichola Formichetti.

Gaga, who was campaigning at the time in support of repelling "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," told Ellen DeGeneres that the dress represents equality, saying "Equality is the prime rib of America."

"If we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. And, I am not a piece of meat."

CNN's KJ Matthews contributed to this report.