London - A tramp whose embalmed body was found hidden in a portrait artist's studio has no living relatives to provide a burial, officials told an inquest Friday.
The body of Edwin MacKenzie was found in a chest of drawers in Robert Lenkiewicz's studio in Plymouth, southern England, 10 days after the artist died of a heart attack in August.
MacKenzie, a friend and sometimes the subject of the painter, had died in a hospital of natural causes on November 2, 1984. Lenkiewicz, who took custody of the body, had refused to tell authorities where it was.
MacKenzie had no known living relatives and left no will. A death certificate gave his profession as "artist's assistant (retired)".
The pair met when MacKenzie was living in a concrete barrel at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Plymouth, and the tramp featured in a 1960 series of paintings by Lenkiewicz entitled "Vagrancy".
Plymouth and South Devon Coroner Nigel Meadows said on Friday that Lenkiewicz had refused to tell the local council where MacKenzie's body was, insisting his friend had wanted his body to be embalmed and preserved.
After Lenkiewicz died, executors of his estate gave officials information which led to a search of the studio.
"It is an unusual but not unique situation," Meadows said. "If no one can come forward with a proper right of claim for possession then the body is released to the local authority for burial."
Meadows said it was an "interesting question" whether the artist had behaved legally.
"Strictly speaking he should have sought the assistance of the environmental health authority to see if what he was doing was appropriate," he said.
Paintings by Lenkiewicz, who studied at St Martin's College of Art in London, sell for up to £50 000 (about R815 000) apiece. - Sapa-AP