Most disturbing exhibits at controversial Museum of real human bodies as it arrives in UK
Warning: This article contains images which some readers may find distressing.
Here are all the controversial exhibitions on display at Body Worlds, Amsterdam's most controversial museum.
For anyone not familiar with the infamous museum, Body Worlds displays an array of human and animal bodies which have been preserved through plastination – a technique in which water and fat in the body are replaced by a curable liquid plastic in order to create a preservable specimen.
The preserved bodies are then displayed in an array of different exhibitions for morbid tourists to come and ogle at before heading for their latte and stroopwafel.
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Unsurprisingly, a museum displaying deceased human and animal bodies has caused a number of controversies over the years.
Here's what you need to know.
Why is Amsterdam's Body Worlds museum so controversial?
The ethics of whether or not a museum displaying plastinated human bodies should exist has been questioned numerous times over the years.
A page detailing 'body donation' on the museum's website outlines that anyone wishing to donate their body to the exhibit must complete a written consent form outlining that they agree to the 'preparation of permanently preserved teaching specimens from my donated body. It also extends to photographs, videos and any other images or depictions of such specimens, in any medium or format, in perpetuity'.
The page adds that donated bodies must have died a natural death and not as the result of violence.
Despite the terms outlined on the museum's website, Body Worlds has faced numerous allegations suggesting that its exhibits included bodies which belonged to executed Chinese victims.
Describing the museum as 'nauseating', one TripAdvisor reviewer accused Body Worlds of using 'actual bodies of humans who have been executed or otherwise murdered in China and Russia', including that of a pregnant woman.
This isn't the first time the museum has faced such allegations, with the Body Worlds' owner Gunther von Hagens agreeing to return seven bodies to China, which may have come from executed prisoners in 2004 (per The Guardian).
In response to the comment, Body Worlds reiterated its commitment to using bodies which have been donated.
von Hagens also addressed the allegations in an interview with the British Medical Journal in 2003, saying: "Never have any authorities even asked me, charged me, [or] ever suspected I received any body illegally. By law I am entitled to receive unclaimed bodies from wherever I want."
The body of a pregnant woman isn't the only controversial display at Body Worlds either, as the museum also features bodies which have been displayed in various sexual positions.
"It is extremely sexist, has all the female bodies in provocative and sexual positions - not one in an educational position," read another review, adding that male bodies were displayed in positions both 'both educational and active'. von Hagens previously explained that his decision behind displaying bodies in sexual positions to show 'easily disease can be transmitted' as well as the anatomy of an erection.
Despite the criticism, the museum has an overall positive rating, scoring an average of four-and-a-half stars out of five on the platform.
Is the Body Worlds exhibit coming to London?
If the idea of viewing resin-dried human bodies doesn't churn your stomach too much, then you'll be delighted to know that the Body Worlds exhibit is set to come to London at the end of this week.
Titled Body Worlds: The Anatomy of Happiness, the exhibit opens up at opens in London on September 25, 2026, at Sussex Mansions in South Kensington and boasts of bodies in positions such as horse riding, playing basketball and in 'penetrative sexual positions'.
The exhibit will be open until March 2027.
LADbible previously approached Body Worlds for comment.
Brenna Cooper