Tramp's body found in artist's studio

Robert Lenkiewicz did the embalming as a request

The body of an embalmed tramp has been found in the studio owned by the late Plymouth artist, Robert Lenkiewicz.

Edwin McKenzie, known as Diogenes, was a close friend of the artist. The whereabouts of the 72-year-old's body since his death in the 1980s had been a mystery.

It was believed the dying wish of Mr McKenzie, who had no known family, was that his friend should embalm his body as a "work of art".

Mr McKenzie's body is being held in Derriford Hospital's mortuary. It will be handed over to Plymouth City Council, which must then have it buried or cremated.

The pair first met when the tramp was living in a concrete barrel at a rubbish tip on the outskirts of Plymouth.

Edwin McKenzie's body was found in a drawer

When Mr Lenkiewicz carried out the embalming in 1984, it caused a storm of controversy. Plymouth City Council demanded the body should be properly buried.

Health officials reportedly once tried to remove the body from the artist's studio in the mid 1980s - but found only Mr Lenkiewicz himself hidden inside a makeshift coffin.

The well-preserved body was found in a drawer in Lenkiewicz's studio in the Barbican area of the city, after the 60-year-old artist's death from a heart attack in August.

Plymouth and South Devon Coroner Nigel Meadows told an inquest it was an "interesting question" whether the artist had behaved legally.

Suitable burial

He said: "Strictly speaking he should have sought the assistance of the environmental health authority to see if what he was doing was appropriate."

Plymouth City Council said it was the authority's responsibility to provide a suitable burial for Mr MacKenzie if no family members were found.

A spokesperson said: "If a burial is necessary, it is likely the council would consult the Lenkiewicz Foundation over any arrangements.

"Anything that has happened in the past with regard to this body is now history and would have no bearing whatsoever on the council's treatment of this matter."

Vagrancy study

Robert Lenkiewicz studied at St Martin's College of Art, London. He then moved to the South West in the early 1970s.

The artist was a well-known figure around Plymouth.

During the 1960s, he completed a "Vagrancy" study of the lives of tramps in London and Plymouth.

It was one of a series of projects in which he examined the lives of people living on the fringes of society.