The surgeon and his £7m plastic wife

THOUSANDS of Europe’s wealthiest and most beautiful women owed their sculpted looks to him, but she was his most famous creation.

Tatjana Gsell, 31, was transformed from a chubby, small-town Bavarian girl into one of Germany’s most photographed women with a love of the high life under the tutelage - and the scalpel - of her estranged husband, the millionaire plastic surgeon, Franz Gsell, 76.

When he died in March, after months in a coma as the result of a burglary in which he was badly beaten, the newly-widowed Gsell declared herself "infinitely sad".

"I cannot get a grip on the fact that he is no longer there," she said. "It’s terrible. I have had to let the most important person in my life go."

But, in a saga of sex and gold-digging which has kept the nation’s chattering classes twittering for days, Gsell, who stands to gain her husband’s 7 million fortune, has now been charged in connection with his death.

If convicted, the woman whose pictures adorned the pages of glossy magazines could spend between ten years and life in prison.

The dark-haired, would-be society widow is currently being held in a single prison cell in Nuremberg, measuring just ten metres square, a far cry from the life of luxury and glamour to which she is used. State prosecutors in the Bavarian town confirmed that Gsell was arrested after being suspected of masterminding a robbery in January in which her husband was savagely beaten with an axe.

Mr Gsell, who earned his millions re-sculpting the bodies of the rich and famous, died after spending three months in a coma.

"Tatjana Gsell was arrested on suspicion she instigated the robbery that led to his death," said Bernhard Wankel, a spokesman for the Nuremberg state prosecutor’s office.

"The evidence that she was behind the crime is quite clear even though she continues to deny any role."

He added that there was no suggestion Gsell had intended her husband to die during the robbery.

Police have said Mr Gsell was alone in his villa in Nuremberg when two robbers wearing masks broke in and beat him with the blunt end of an axe, crushing his chest.

The men, who police believe were Romanians, fled with 5,000 (3,489) from his safe and an expensive watch. A portion of the money was found shortly after the attack in a plastic bag with Romanian writing on it.

Markus Henning, Gsell’s lawyer, said prosecutors have no evidence linking her to the crime. "There is no proof whatsoever that she persuaded the Romanians to commit this crime in order to get the inheritance," Mr Henning told Bild, the German tabloid newspaper.

The woman who has already been dubbed "the Black Widow" by German newspapers caught her husband’s eye when she began work as his apprentice, aged 18.

Then Tanja Gick, she was, according to one friend, "a chubby ugly duckling". The plastic surgeon soon began rebuilding the woman who would become his wife.

Gsell has only ever admitted to having a new nose, lips and breasts, but she is rumoured to have gone under her husband’s skilled knife more than 20 times. Her friend, named as Sandra, said: "Franz also operated on her chin, eyes, and cheekbones. He gave her liposuctions as well."

During their nine years of marriage, Gsell enjoyed a life of luxury, buying fast cars, designer clothes and expensive jewellery. Due to her husband’s ever-expanding business, the couple often featured in tabloid newspapers, celebrity magazines and on television. The articles included pictures of the grey-haired Mr Gsell expertly remodelling naked women.

"My husband has formed me and changed me both on the inside and on the outside," Gsell once said.

Last year, the widow hit the headlines when she began an affair with Helmut Becker, 60, a car dealer in Dusseldorf. The couple even boasted openly about their extra-marital relationship, provoking a war of words between Mr Becker and Mr Gsell which filled the gossip columns for months.

But when it emerged that Gsell planned to stay with the car dealer, her husband reportedly issued an ultimatum - either she came back to him before the end of 2002 or he would cut her off financially.

Mr Gsell was alone in his villa on 5 January when he was attacked, but managed to call police for help. He was taken to hospital in a critical condition, and slipped into a coma before dying on March 26.

Gsell, who had been staying at the couple’s holiday villa in Marbella, was often at his hospital bedside. All thoughts of her car dealer apparently forgotten, she said she and her husband had listened to Chopin together when he came out of his coma briefly ten days after being admitted to hospital. "It was the most wonderful moment of my life," she added.

After he died, she published a death notice that read: "Our lives are limited, but my love for you is unlimited."

A week after his death, Mr Gsell’s manager announced that the plastic surgeon had left his entire fortune to his wife. When the contents of the will were revealed, in early April, she said: "I’ll never have to worry about money again."

The authorities, suspicious of Gsell’s antics in the press, were not convinced about the robbery.

When, after a warrant for her arrest was issued on 11 April, she went underground and could not be found, they widened their search. Police swooped on a rented Rover Freelander last Thursday, as she drove towards the villa where her husband was attacked.

"She was caught in a routine traffic control and arrested," a police spokesman said.