Critics accused von Hagens of crossing into sensationalism with displays that included a corpse riding a plastinated horse and the body of a pregnant woman carrying an eight-month-old foetus.
Gunther von Hagens, a German anatomist who drew both fascination and controversy with his "Body Worlds" exhibitions of preserved human bodies, has died aged 81.
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His family and the Institute for Plastination, which he founded, said he died on Friday. They provided no further details in a statement released on Monday. Von Hagens announced in 2010 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Von Hagens blurred the lines between science, entertainment and commerce with his travelling exhibitions, as well as headline-grabbing events such as public autopsies.
At the heart of his work was plastination, a process that replaces body fluids with liquid plastic that hardens over time. Developed by von Hagens in the 1970s, the technique prevents decay, preserves tissue and allows human bodies and organs to be displayed.
His "Body Worlds" exhibition debuted in Japan in 1995.
Two years later, the collection of partly skinless corpses went on display in von Hagens’ homeland, overcoming an attempt by local church leaders to block its opening on the grounds that it was disrespectful. Von Hagens defended the displays, saying they helped people better understand how the human body works.
The anatomist “is forced in his daily work to reject the taboos and convictions that people have about death and the dead,” von Hagens said of his work.
“I touch here a taboo, which is our body, and nothing is so near as our body is to us,” he said.
The exhibitions featured the bodies of people who had agreed to donate them for plastination.
The “Body Worlds” exhibits were shown in several American cities after making their US. debut in Los Angeles in 2004.
The anatomist was born Gunther Liebchen on 10 January 1945, in what is now western Poland.
Monday's statement said it was von Hagens' wish that his body be made available for plastination and “his family will respect and carry out this wish.”