The German artist Joseph Beuys was a member of the Luftwaffe during WWII, and was involved in a plane crash in Crimea in 1944. The pilot died, but Beuys survived and subsequently claimed that he was found critically injured by Tartar tribesman who smothered his freezing body with animal fat and felt in order to keep him alive. The artist had several reoccurring motifs in his works two of which were felt and fat, in direct relation to his account of his encounter with the Tartar tribe.

Courtesy: J. Temple & C. Walker