German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, creator of 'Body Worlds,' dies at 81

Gunther von Hagens, the German anatomist who drew worldwide attention by exhibiting preserved human bodies, has died at 81.

Born Gunther Liebchen in Poland in 1945, he studied medicine at Heidelberg University and in 1977 developed a body-preservation technique known as plastination, which removes moisture and fat from a corpse and replaces them with hardening plastics such as silicone and epoxy to prevent decay. After successfully preserving an entire human body using the method in 1992, he launched the "Body Worlds" exhibition, which drew more than 50 million visitors across 42 countries. In South Korea, the exhibition opened in 2002 under the name "Inche-ui Sinbi," or "The Mystery of the Human Body," and attracted about 1.7 million visitors.

His exhibitions of human specimens drew persistent criticism as a desecration of human remains and human dignity. After he moved his operations to China in the early 2000s, allegations emerged that he was using the bodies of Chinese death-row inmates, leading some countries to ban his shows. Von Hagens said he used only the bodies of donors who had pledged their remains for research purposes.

Von Hagens was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2008, and his second wife, Angelina Whalley, took over exhibition planning. That same year, when he pledged to donate his own body, he requested that it be made into a specimen posed with one hand extended as if greeting visitors and placed at the entrance of the exhibition hall in Guben, a city on the border with Poland.