Recently, an auction house faced significant backlash after putting human and ancestral remains up for sale. This decision prompted them to withdraw the items in response to criticism from indigenous groups and museums. Located in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, Swan Auction House had listed a range of controversial artifacts, including skulls and shrunken heads collected from various global communities.
In an interview with the BBC, Laura Van Broekhoven, director of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, voiced her outrage over the auction and praised the decision to remove the remains from the sale. She highlighted the ethical issues such a sale raises, stating, “This is really problematic for many communities around the world. The fact that these objects were taken is incredibly painful, and putting them up for auction is deeply disrespectful and inconsiderate.”
Van Broekhoven acknowledged the historical context of these items, explaining, “While we understand these items were collected in the 19th and 20th centuries, seeing them for sale in 2024 is quite shocking.” The auction included shrunken heads from the Jivaro people of South America, skulls from the Ekoi people of West Africa, and a horned human skull from the Naga people of India and Myanmar. This led the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) to reach out to the auction house to demand the repatriation of these artifacts.
The FNR is among several indigenous groups currently engaging with the Pitt Rivers Museum concerning the museum’s collection. Van Broekhoven shared, “We are actively reaching out to communities to understand how they want us to care for these human remains, or if they prefer repatriation. This is feasible when items are preserved in public collections like ours. We can be held accountable, whereas once they are auctioned off, they are removed from public use and communities lose contact.”
While she commended the auction house for its decision to withdraw the remains, Van Broekhoven raised concerns about their future care.
