Corspe Factory Raises Eyebrows
Controversial German artist Gunther von Hagens, known for his displays of preserved human corpses stripped of skin, wants to build a factory in Poland to mass-produce his art, local officials said on Monday.
Von Hagens, whose exhibitions made out of human and animal remains have attracted millions of visitors around the world, has already bought land and industrial buildings in the western Polish town of Sieniawa Zarska, near the German border.
"His father told us what he plans to do here. Von Hagen plans to open a plastination factory of human bodies," said Andrzej Chwiedacz, senior municipal official in Sieniawa, population 1,150.
"Von Hagen's father is trying to convince us and our people why it is good for our town."
The "plastination" process is a craft of preserving human bodies by replacing the natural body fluids with solid plastic. The process both preserves tissues and gives rigidity, enabling the corpse and the organs to be displayed in exhibitions.
Chwiedacz said the pioneer of plastination, whose scalpel jobs have alternately fascinated and nauseated viewers, wanted to turn the site into a factory where corpses will undergo his special treatment, employing up to 300 people.
The artist, who once put on display the corpse of a pregnant woman, complete with a dissection of her womb, has faced probes over dealing with corpses in several countries where authorities have tried but failed to stop his displays.
The scandal around von Hagen's plans spiced up further when the Polish and German press said his 89-year-old father, Gerhard Liebchen, who represents his son's businesses in Poland, was suspected of carrying out crimes against Poles in World War Two.
"We will probe if Gerhard Liebchen cooperated in sending 60 Poles to concentration camps, which would give reasons to launch an investigation for participation in genocide," a state institute set up to examine wartime crimes said on Monday.
Liebchen's whereabouts were not immediately known, with Sieniawa officials saying that he had not shown up in the town since the controversy started and had left no contact number.