An auction house has been forced to retract human and ancestral remains from a sale due to backlash from indigenous groups and museums.
Objects such as skulls and shrunken heads were listed by The Swan auction house, in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire.
However, critics were left “outraged” at the auction and have praised the decision to remove them.
Laura Van Broekhoven, who is the director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, in Oxford was among those who condemned the sale of the items.
An auction house has been forced to retract human and ancestral remains from a sale due to backlash from indigenous groups and museums (listing item not pictured}GettySome of the items initially listed were shrunken heads from the Jivaro people of South America, skulls from the Ekoi people of West Africa and a 19th century horned human skull from the Naga people of India and Myanmar.
“The fact these objects were taken is really painful, and the fact that they were being put on sale is really disrespectful and inconsiderate,” Professor Van Broekhoven told the BBC.
“We’re conscious that the remains would have been collected in the 19th and 20th centuries.
“But for them to be on sale in 2024 was quite shocking.”
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She added that the sale was “ethically really problematic” for communities across the globe.
Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) contacted the auction directly and demanded the items were removed from the sale.
The FNR is among various indigenous groups globally engaged in discussions with the Pitt Rivers regarding the artefacts in the museum’s collection.
Broekhoven said: “We are currently reaching out to communities that we have these human remains, and they can tell us how they would like us to care for them or if they would like them to be repatriated.
Objects such as skulls and shrunken heads were listed by the Swan auction house, in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire
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“All of that is possible when they’re held in public collections like ours – we can be held accountable, whereas once they go up for auction, they’re out of public use and there’s no way for a community to be in contact.”
She said that she “commended” the auction house’s decision to remove the remains from sale.
However, she added that she questioned what would now happen to them.
GB News have approached The Swan auction house for comment.