Argentina's legendary first lady died in July 1952. Six decades later, the BBC revisited the extraordinary story of what happened to her body – and the strange 16-year journey it undertook across continents.

Within hours of Eva Perón’s death on 26 July 1952, Dr Pedro Ara began his delicate task. The distinguished Spanish anatomist was commissioned to embalm the Argentine first lady using advanced preservation methods similar to those employed on Lenin and Stalin in the Soviet Union. Evita, as she was lovingly known, was placed in the Ministry of Labour building. Plans were underway for a grand monument to workers, with a glass coffin at its base that would serve as her permanent resting place.

Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing.

But events took a dramatic turn three years later. In September 1955, President Juan Perón was overthrown in a military coup and forced into exile. The new authorities made the extraordinary decision to remove Eva Perón’s body, triggering a grim and complex saga that would last 16 years. Her remains were kept at the Military Intelligence headquarters, concealed in a van, secretly buried in Milan, transferred to Madrid, and eventually returned to Buenos Aires, where they were placed in a highly secure crypt.

Eva Perón died of cervical cancer at just 33. Her husband’s insistence on embalming her was not merely personal but political. Born into poverty and adored for her advocacy of workers and the poor, Evita had become a powerful symbol for Argentina’s working class. Preserving her physical presence meant preserving that emotional and political force. Peronism placed enormous weight on imagery and symbolism, and Evita herself had become an enduring emblem.

This was evident in the days following her death. Dr Ara succeeded in maintaining her body in a remarkably lifelike condition through injections of paraffin and glycerine. For 14 days, as she lay in state in Congress, nearly two million mourners filed past her coffin. The devotion she inspired in life only deepened in death.

That symbolic power explains the extraordinary journey her body would take. After the 1955 coup, the dictatorship led by General Pedro Aramburu sought to eradicate Peronism entirely. Officials feared that Evita’s preserved body might become a focal point for resistance and rebellion.

Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Moori Koenig, head of Army Intelligence, took charge of the remains. Fearing attempts by Peronist loyalists to recover them, he repeatedly moved the coffin around Buenos Aires. According to accounts, it was hidden in a van on city streets, behind a cinema screen, and even within municipal waterworks buildings. Yet wherever it was taken, flowers and candles mysteriously appeared.

Eventually, Koenig reportedly kept the coffin in his office, at times standing it upright and displaying it to selected visitors. Stories circulated that he became obsessed with the body. Former military colleagues later claimed his behavior changed dramatically after he assumed responsibility for it.

Argentine academic Cecilia Macón has noted that separating fact from fiction is difficult, as myth and history constantly intertwine in stories about Evita. One persistent account suggests Koenig developed an unhealthy fixation on the corpse before being removed from his post in 1957.

Colonel Héctor Cabanillas was then assigned the task of permanently removing the body from Argentina. In 1957 it was transported secretly to Italy and buried in Milan under the false name María Maggi de Magistris. Despite the secrecy, Evita’s supporters never stopped searching. Graffiti began appearing in Buenos Aires asking, “Where is the body of Eva Perón?” The demand for her return became a rallying cry for Peronists.

Historian Flavia Fiorucci has argued that the military’s involvement in the disappearance only intensified its symbolic weight. To many supporters, the mistreatment of Evita’s body represented a broader assault on the working class she had championed.

In 1971, a new government seeking a transition back to democracy eased restrictions on Peronism and agreed to return the body to Juan Perón, who was living in exile in Madrid with his third wife, Isabel. The remains were delivered in a silver coffin to his suburban villa.

Carlos Spadoni, a close associate of Perón at the time, later recalled being present when the coffin was opened. The body, still marked by years underground, needed careful cleaning. Isabel reportedly undertook the task herself, gently wiping it with water and cotton cloths. She combed and dried Evita’s long blonde hair with meticulous attention.

As before, rumours flourished. Some stories centered on José López Rega, a former minister associated with mysticism. One tale claimed he encouraged Isabel to lie beside Evita’s body in hopes that her predecessor’s political aura would transfer to her. Such accounts reflected the near-religious reverence many followers felt toward Evita. Rising from humble beginnings to national prominence, she had become a spiritual figure to supporters, though fiercely opposed by anti-Peronists.

Juan Perón returned to the presidency in 1973, with Isabel as vice president. Evita’s body remained in Spain until Perón’s sudden death in 1974. Afterward, her remains were sent back to Argentina. Domingo Tellechea, an art and antiquities restorer who also worked on human remains, was approached in Buenos Aires to repair damage to the body. At a time when people were frequently abducted and “disappeared,” the approach filled him with fear.

He was eventually taken to see Oscar Ivanissevich, Eva Perón’s former physician, who informed him of the assignment: to restore Evita’s body. Tellechea understood the political dangers involved. Many powerful figures had preferred the body to remain hidden, and his involvement exposed him to threats and intimidation. He later went into exile as political violence escalated in Argentina.

Finally, in October 1976, Eva Perón was laid to rest in Buenos Aires in a quiet ceremony attended by only a handful of people. Extraordinary measures were taken to secure the tomb. Beneath the marble surface lay a trapdoor leading to a hidden chamber, and below that, another compartment containing her coffin. Even 24 years after her death, the intensity of her symbolic power meant her remains were buried five metres underground to prevent any future disturbance.

After a journey marked by secrecy, myth and political upheaval, Evita’s body at last found a permanent resting place—closing one of the most unusual chapters in modern Argentine history.