 After his execution , Guevara 's body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to nearby Vallegrande , where photographs were taken of him lying on a concrete slab in the laundry room of the Nuestra Señora de Malta . Several witnesses were called to confirm his identity , key amongst them the British journalist Richard Gott , the only witness to have met Guevara when he was alive . Put on display , as hundreds of local residents filed past the body , Guevara 's corpse was considered by many to represent a " Christ @-@ like " visage , with some even surreptitiously clipping locks of his hair as divine relics . Such comparisons were further extended when English art critic John Berger , two weeks later upon seeing the post @-@ mortem photographs , observed that they resembled two famous paintings : Rembrandt 's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp and Andrea Mantegna 's Lamentation over the Dead Christ . There were also four correspondents present when Guevara 's body arrived in Vallegrande , including Björn Kumm of the Swedish Aftonbladet , who described the scene in a November 11 , 1967 exclusive for The New Republic . 
