Alfredo Salafia

Alfredo Salafia ( born November 7, 1869 in Palermo, Italy, † January 31, 1933 ) was an Italian specialist for embalming.

Salafia was a celebrity in his own lifetime. He had, inter alia, the body of Italy's Prime Minister Francesco Crispi (1902 ) and the Archbishop of Palermo Michelangelo Cardinal Celesia (1904 ) conserved. These bodies are so well preserved that eyewitnesses reported at exhumations that the people look as if they were only just dozed off. The body Crispi († 1901) was initially treated by body taxidermy of Naples, but their methods were found to be inadequate. A year later Salafia received an order to save the body, which he succeeded in several months of work. He could also restore the facial features Crispis by paraffin injections. The preserved body of Salafia Celesias († 1904) also regarded as a sensation. He spent five years as can be seen in the Catacombs of the Capuchins, before he was transferred to the local cathedral.

Particularly well known Salafia was the embalming Rosalia Lombardo in 1920 in a report from 2009 about their mummy says:. "Every hair on her peachy skin is preserved. The face is so delicate and peaceful, as if she had only just fallen asleep. Rosalia is regarded as the most beautiful mummy in the world. " In March 2009, researchers discovered its method of embalming. In Anna Phillipone, the great-niece of Salafias second wife, aufgefundenem discount paper entitled " Nuovo metodo speciale per la conservazione del cadavere umano interno allo stato permanent elements fresco" Salafia had written that part glycerin, one part formalin, enriched with zinc sulfate and chlorides, to a third part alcohol solution containing salicylic acid is the right mix.

Salafia died of a stroke and is in the cemetery of Santa Maria di Gesù, Palermo buried. The mummies of Salafia are exhibited in the Imperial Crypt in Palermo.