UK auction of human skull canceled after Indian outcry

The artifact reportedly belonged to a tribe in Nagaland state and was allegedly looted by the British

An auction house in the UK has withdrawn the sale of a human skull following an outcry in India. The artifact dates back to the British colonial era, when human remains were taken as trophies and made their way to various museums and private collections across Europe and the US. 

The 19th-century human skull is believed to belong to the Naga tribe – an indigenous ethnic group inhabiting the hills of northeastern India, including the state of Nagaland.

The skull, attached to animal horns, was slated for online sale this week as lot No. 64 at Swan Auction Galleries in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire. It was listed for a starting bid of £2,100 ($2,740), with the auctioneer estimating it would fetch around £4,000 ($5,200). Reports indicate that the skull was initially part of a collection owned by 19th-century Belgian architect Francois Coppens.  

“This piece would be of particular interest to collectors with a focus on anthropology and tribal cultures,” the description of the lot read, according to the PTI news agency. The auction included human remains from other tribes in India, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Nigeria, the Congo, and Benin.  

The Hon'ble Chief Minister of Nagaland, Shri @Neiphiu_Rio writes to the Hon'ble External Affairs Minister of India, @DrSJaishankar with regard to the proposed auction of Naga human remains in the UK. pic.twitter.com/El9BD2yKsC

— CMO Nagaland (@CmoNagaland) October 8, 2024

The auction provoked an outcry in Nagaland, led by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who sought the intervention of Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to stop the sale.

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“It is a highly emotional and sacred issue for our people,” Neiphiu Rio wrote. “It has been a traditional custom of our people to give the highest respect and honor to the remains of the deceased.” Rio urged Jaishankar to take up the matter with the High Commission of India in London.  

Earlier, the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), a group from Nagaland, had raised concerns over the auction, arguing that it violated Article 15 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The group contacted the auction house directly to condemn the sale and call for the object to be repatriated.  

FNR is also in a dialogue with the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford about items held in the museum’s collection, reports noted. In 2020, the museum stated that it would remove human remains and other “insensitive exhibits” from display after an ethical review.  

“We are relieved to hear that the auction house has now removed all human remains from today’s sale” said Professor Laura Van Broekhoven, director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, commenting on the development on Wednesday. She condemned the sale of ancestral remains as “offensive and unacceptable.”

FNR condemns auction of ancestral Naga human remains in UK; CM seeks MHA’s intervention https://t.co/XaMWF1qwHB

UPDATE: We have been advised that the Naga ancestral remains have now been withdrawn from tomorrow's sale.

— Pitt Rivers Museum (@Pitt_Rivers) October 8, 2024

The development comes as governments and organizations across South Asia and Africa are urging Western countries to return art and artifacts which were taken during colonial rule.

In recent years, India has returned hundreds of antiquities believed to have been stolen by the British from the UK, US, and Australia. Last month, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US, India received 297 items, raising the total number of returned artifacts from various countries to 650 over the past decade.