Looking for an unusual gift or that perfect ornament for your living room? How about a cross-section of a preserved corpse, courtesy of "Body Worlds" entrepreneur Gunther von Hagens — a snip at €12,000.
Just when you thought the "Body Worlds" exhibition couldn’t get any more gross, Plastination pioneer Gunther von Hagens (more…) comes up with a stomach-churning new idea: selling slices of human bodies.
According to the mass circulation daily Bild, von Hagens, famous for developing the patented Plastination technique for preserving corpses, has come up with a new business model involving selling cross-sections of bodies prepared in his "Plastinarium" workshop in Guben on the German-Polish border.
Until now, he has only sold cross-sections, where plastinated organs are clearly visible, to universities as teaching materials. But now private individuals will be able to buy slices of corpses too. Von Hagens’ assistant Nadine Diwersi told the newspaper: "We are able to quickly produce large quantities with high quality and for a good price."
A cross-section down the length of the body will cost €12,000 ($17,800), while a cross-section across the body will be priced at €250, or €1,600 for a 16-slice set. A typical corpse can produce eight vertical cross-sections or 230 horizontal cross-sections.
