Body Worlds creator Gunther von Hagens dies at 81; family says his body will be plastinated

Gunther von Hagens, the German anatomist who created the Body Worlds exhibitions of dissected human and animal bodies, has died aged 81, his family said Monday. His team said he died on Friday.

His family said von Hagens had asked for his own body to be made available for plastination after his death and said it would carry out that wish.

Von Hagens invented plastination, a process for preserving human and animal tissue by replacing water and fat with chemical compounds. His Body Worlds exhibitions displayed preserved bodies in lifelike poses, showing muscles, skeletons and internal organs, and drew millions of visitors worldwide.

The exhibitions were also controversial and sometimes faced calls for bans. Von Hagens was accused of voyeurism and of commercially profiting from death, and a filmed autopsy before an audience in London in 2002 added to his notoriety.

Von Hagens was born on January 10, 1945, in what was then Nazi-occupied Poland and grew up in communist East Germany. He was jailed after trying to flee communist Germany and later moved to West Germany, where he developed plastination in 1977 after medical studies.

His wife and collaborator, Angelina Whalley, said his work was intended to help people understand their own bodies and was scientific and educational.