Post by Joanna on Sept 25, 2014 17:59:15 GMT -5
'Dr. Death' Exhibit of Preserved Corpses Banned in Berlin
BERLIN – An exhibit featuring human corpses by Germany’s famed “Dr. Death” has been banned in Berlin for violating funeral laws, according to media reports Tuesday.
A permanent exhibit of works by artist and anatomist Gunther von Hagen was set to open in a new museum in the German capital in December. The Menschen – or "Folk” – Museum was to feature 20 bodies and 200 body parts preserved through a process known as "plastination." Berlin hosted von Hagen’s Body Worlds exhibits in 2001, 2009 and 2011, even though local Berlin law requires that deceased humans be buried.
Von Hagen and his wife were scheduled to file a complaint concerning the decision and planned to proceed with the opening, according to museum spokesman David Eckel.
The exhibit has toured the world for years, giving visitors a look at human anatomy and physiology. A permanent exhibition recently opened in New York. In 2012, von Hagen advised German mass circulation newspaper, Bild, he was suffering from Parkinson’s and after his death, his wife would plastinate and exhibit his body.
Source: NBC News, September 23, 2014.