13ft Elephant Corpse Art
“Germany’s ‘Dr Death’ Gunter von Hagens has plastinated a pachyderm for a Jumbo-sized exhibition. The corpse collector, who preserves bodies for eternity with a special gel to display around the world, turned his unique talents to Samba the elephant. She passed away last year at the age of 41 in Neukirchen Zoo in Germany. Donated to von Hagens’ Plastination Institute for preservation, she is by far the biggest challenge to his team so far. Nearly 13ft tall and weighting 3.2 tons, Samba took 65,000 hours to be turned into the latest star attraction of his circus of the doomed. ‘Thirty five people were involved in her preparation and she will be coming back to Germany on display next year,’ said von Hagens, who has been criticized by church leaders for his grisly exhibitions which they say defile the dignity of the dead.” w/ photos
