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BODY WORLDS, GUNTHER VON HAGENS’ ORIGINAL EXHIBITIONS OF DONOR BODIES NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH COPYCAT DISPLAYS THAT USE UNCLAIMED AND FOUND BODIES FROM CHINA Heidelberg, Germany—June 2, 2008 Several recent media reports in Germany and the United States have confused Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS exhibitions with other anatomy displays and copycat displays such as, “Bodies … The Exhibition. ”Multiple media reports in Germany and the United States have falsely stated that Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS
exhibitions have been the subject of investigation by the Attorney
General of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo for the use of human remains from
China of undetermined origin. Reports have also been disseminated by
the media that Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS exhibitions and
the Attorney General of New York have reached a settlement on the
investigation, with details of the alleged settlement. The Institute
for Plastination publicly states that all of these statements are false. The
body display under scrutiny by the Attorney General of New York is
“Bodies … The Exhibition” organized by Premier Exhibitions, a publicly
traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (PRXI). A comprehensive
report of the investigation of that display is available on the New
York State Attorney General’s website at http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2008/may/may29a_08.html Anatomist,
Gunther von Hagens—inventor of Plastination and creator of the first
and original public anatomical exhibitions known initially as Koerperwelten and now as BODY WORLDS is not affiliated with any other anatomical displays or copycat exhibits that use unclaimed and found bodies from China.
The
only public anatomical exhibitions that the Institute for Plastination
and Dr. von Hagens are affiliated to are the exhibitions that bear the
name Gunther von Hagens BODY WORLDS. The only cities where Gunther von Hagens BODY WORLDS exhibitions are currently on display are those listed on the official BODY WORLDS website at www.bodyworlds.com
In
addition, with the exception of fetuses from historical anatomical
collections predating 1920s, and a small number of organs from
morphological institutes and hospital exhibitions, all specimens in Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS
stem from the Institute for Plastination’s Body Donation Program. The
IfP’s Body Donation Program, as of May 31st, 2008 has a donor roster of
more than 9200 donors, more than 7300 from Germany, and more than 700 from the US, and none from China.
For more information about Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS exhibitions, please visit www.bodyworlds.com
or contact Gail Vida Hamburg at g.hamburg(at)plastination.com
or Georgina Gomez at g.gomez(at)plastination.com
Correction of Erroneous Reporting, May 16, 2008 The News Record, The University of Cincinnati's independent student newspaper David Barnhorn, in his informative article on human rights violations in China, Ex-prisoner Speaks Against China, (May 15, 08)
states that Chinese human rights advocate, Harry Wu "displayed
photographs depicting bodies of prisoners ready for plastination that
were given to him by Gunther von Hagens." While, the Institute for
Plastination has always responded openly and transparently to questions
from the media, public, and concerned citizens about the BODY WORLDS
exhibitions, the work of the Institute for Plastination, its
mission,its body donation program, and its scientific work, and Dr. von
Hagens has given interviews on public anatomical displays, ethical
issues surrounding publlc anatomy, and the origin of the bodies in BODY WORLDS, neither the Insitute nor Dr. von Hagens gave photographs, such as the ones described in the article, to anyone. All BODY WORLDS photographs are made available to the media and to researchers via the image database at www.bodyworlds.com. Gail Vida Hamburg
Director of Communications
Institute for Plastination
Heidelberg, Germany
g.hamburg(at)plastination.com
GUNTHER VON HAGENS’ BODY WORLDS EXHIBITIONS MARK 25th MILLION VISITOR MILESTONE
Heidelberg,
Germany, April 28, 2008—Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS,
the traveling anatomical exhibitions of donor bodies welcomes its 25th
million visitor this week. Though it will not be known if the
distinction will go to a visitor entering the turnstile at BODY WORLDS in Los Angeles, or if the honor will go instead to a visitor at BODY WORLDS in Milwaukee, or Baltimore, or Manchester, England, the number is a stellar achievement in museum exhibition history. Since 1996, when anatomist, Gunther von Hagens presented the first BODY WORLDS
at the National Science Center in Tokyo, to commemorate the centennial
of the Japanese Anatomical Society, the exhibitions, now numbering
four, have struck a deep chord and resonated with people in 47 cities
around the world. In Los Angeles, more than 1 million people have seen
BODY WORLDS in its three editions; in Chicago—1,187,583;
Berlin—1,393,902; Seoul—2,039,136; London—840,611; Brussels—506,793;
Denver—687,022. The numbers are so staggering that Jeff Rudolph, President of the California Science Center, who presented the first BODY WORLDS
exhibition in North America, followed by the second and, now, third of
Dr. von Hagens’ exhibitions, coined a new term for the phenomena—The BODY WORLDS Effect. “BODY WORLDS
brought not just expanded audiences … but enhanced our brand as a
science learning institution,” wrote Rudolph, who is now also one of
8,458 registered donors in the Body Donation Program of the Institute
for Plastination in Heidelberg, Germany, the primary source of bodies
in BODY WORLDS exhibitions. A seminal museum experience that inserted the post-mortal body into the cultural landscape and contemporary consciousness, BODY WORLDS
exhibitions have fulfilled their mission of public health and science
education, but also forever changed our notions about conception and
death by provoking philosophical and religious reflection in visitors. In
the October 2007 Journal of Medical Humanities, Dr. Charleen Moore of
University of Texas and Dr. C. McKenzie Brown of Trinity University,
who examined more than 70,000 visitor comments about BODY WORLDS
wrote: “For many visitors, both laypersons and the medically trained,
it is very much a kind of meditation hall where they are compelled to
ponder deep assumptions about their own personal and social identity,
their relationship to the universe and/or to God, and to the meaning
and purpose of life.” The comment books, wrote Moore and Brown,
frequently mirror the social, political and ideological issues in
contemporary society and what amounts to running debates on especially
controversial issues, serving as a microcosm of the culture wars
currently fought in society at large. The success of the
exhibitions created by Dr. von Hagens—who invented the science of
Plastination, the anatomical specimen preservation method that makes it
possible to present the aesthetic, didactic anatomy evident in BODY WORLDS—has
spawned a number of copycat displays by commercial interests also
claiming the mission of public health, but none claiming the legal
consent of those on display. For Gunther von Hagens, the inventor of Plastination and the mind behind BODY WORLDS—once
described as, “an envelope pusher and intellectual adventurer of the
type humankind occasionally needs,” and honored last year as a Modern
Day Leonardo Da Vinci—the exhibitions are not an elegy but a
celebration of human potential. “We humans are the only self regarding
beings on the planet, and the exhibitions are a forum for
introspection, to contemplate life in the absence of the animating
spirit and soul. Twenty-five million visitors may amount to a mass
introspection on our humanity, but I am delighted even more that the
experience for each person is singular and emotional.” Gunther
von Hagens is currently working on the third chapter of his anatomical
opus, The Human Saga, a special feature on Aging that followsThe Three
Pound Gem, which focuses on the brain, now showing in Baltimore, and
The Story of the Heart, which considers cardiology and heart health,
now in Los Angeles. For more information please contact:
Gail Vida Hamburg
g.hamburg(at)plastination.com or 312-602-5369
or
Georgina Gomez
g.gomez@plastination.com or 213-291-9572
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