Eva Perón

The embalmed body of Eva Perón, now tucked away in the Duarte Family tomb in Buenos Aires, is likely still intact. In advance of her premature death of cancer in 1952, her husband, Argentine president Juan Perón, retained noted Spanish pathologist Dr. Pedro Ara to preserve her body. Dr. Ara's techniques are revealed in his own book, which I have not read, and in Art Aufderheide's The Scientific Study of Mummies, which I highly recommend. Since Eva is also a 20th c. mummy, I include the embalming and subsequent adventures of her body in my book. My friend Mr. Edward Johnson, a lifelong embalmer, always thought it was telling that in the photo of the two Perón caskets, that of Juan--who had just died in 1974--is closed and that of "Evita" is open--22 years after her death.