“We looked at it, we respected the opinions expressed and we withdrew these items,” confirmed the owner of the auction house Tom Keane, that public complaints led to the withdrawal of the offered human remains. Among the withdrawn objects for sale were the shrunken heads of the South American Chivars, the skulls of the West African Ekoi tribe, and the horned human skulls of the Indian and Burmese Nagas from the 19th century.
The Nagas, in particular, are currently striving to have their artifacts returned to them, reports The Guardian. The Prime Minister of the Indian state of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, said of the auction that it is a manifestation of dehumanization and continuing colonial violence. According to him, it is a very emotional and sacred matter for the Nagas.
The auction was also criticized by Laura Van Broekhovenová, director of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, founded in 1884 and focusing on anthropology, ethnology and archaeology, which has similar specimens in its collection and is currently discussing their future with the communities of their origin. “The fact that these objects were collected is very painful, and the fact that they were for sale is seriously disrespectful and inconsiderate. We realize that they were collected in the 19th and 20th centuries, but to sell them in 2024 is quite shocking,” said Van Broekhoven.
Pitt Rivers Museum stopped exhibiting similar specimens four years ago. “We are currently letting the individual communities know that we have these human remains and that they can tell us how to take care of them or if they want them back. All this is possible because they are in a public collection, such as ours. We are responsible for our treatment of them, but once they are sold, they are out of public use and it is impossible for the original communities to have contact with them,” explained the director of the museum.
In May, an auction house in Dorset also faced a similar scandal as The Swan, which withdrew eighteen skulls from ancient Egypt from sale. Labor MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy declared at the time that their sale would mean the continuation of the monstrosity of colonialism, and demanded the criminalization of the sale of human remains.
Great Britain currently has strict regulations on the storage and display of human remains and their handling, but anyone can own, sell and buy parts of human bodies, as long as they are not obtained illegally and are only intended for decoration.
