Wacky Caskets

Looking to make one last statement to loved ones as you leave this planet? Then check out the latest in casket design.

CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen reports on Art Caskets.

With more than 20 designs, Art Caskets caters to that trend.

Art Caskets are made by a company called Whitelight, which expects to wholesale roughly 5,000 units in 1999.

Some of its most popular ones are called Last Supper; New York, N.Y.; Return to Sender; Mountain Lake; Fairway to Heaven; Great Outdoors; and Angels, the best-selling Art Casket. The second best-seller is Mountain Lake.

Caskets are painted with full murals depicting religious themes, panoramic nature scenes and offbeat notions. Co-creator Patrick Fant has several creations on display at Baue Funeral Homes in St. Charles, Mo.

After working in the broadcasting business, Fant saw a casket distributor ad and realized there was no way for someone who wanted a special funeral service to add a personal touch.

"What if the casket could carry [an] image relating to [the] person inside?" he wondered. He did research to find out if the idea had merit.

Now he buys caskets from manufacturers and converts them into art pieces.

"It's a 7-foot-long piece of artwork," says Fant, who considers himself an art dealer. "They are most impressive because they are large."

According to the Funeral Directors Association, people expect to pay $2,900, says Fant, noting that his caskets run about $3,000.

"Ours, of course, allow for total personalization. We have just received the U.S. patent, making us the only ones doing this," he adds.

Some would call this a gimmick or think of it as a joke, especially the casket called Return to Sender. And a few funeral directors have said, "Oh, this is just too much.Â…It's really over the edge," Fant says.

But he also knows that Art Caskets are not for everyone. "If we get 2 to 5 percent of the market, we'll be doing great. We are now in several foreign countries," he adds.

He also claims that his caskets are not as scary for children to approach. "The feeling is at least a little more accommodating than [that of] the cold steel box."

"We are encouraging our families to look at the wide variety of options available to them when planning funerals," says funeral director Lisa Baue.

"The families that have selected these have made decisions from the heart. They have made choices that focus on the lifestyles of the loved ones who've died," she adds.

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