Ribeiro-Addy, the MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill in London, stated that a legal loophole allowed for such sales and urged the government to take action.
The United Kingdom’s Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Bell Ribeiro-Addy has called for a ban on the sale of human remains in auction houses and on social media, describing the practice as “depraved.”
Speaking in the House of Commons, Ribeiro-Addy provided examples of remains being auctioned “disguised as modified items or replicas,” including a “foetal skeleton posed under a glass dome, a human thigh bone turned into a cane, a human jawbone necklace, and the varnished skull of a six-year-old.”
Ribeiro-Addy, the MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill in London, stated that a legal loophole allowed for such sales and urged the government to take action. She asked the deputy prime minister to commit to ending the practice.
Standing in for Sir Keir Starmer during Prime Minister’s Questions, Angela Rayner called the account “horrifying” and noted that although the display of human remains is regulated by the Human Tissue Authority, “it does not cover sales or purchases.”
The deputy prime minister responded by assuring Ribeiro-Addy that a meeting would be arranged to discuss the issue.
Ribeiro-Addy later told the BBC, “The commodification of human remains perpetuates a dark legacy of colonialism, exploitation and dehumanisation,” adding that “decisive action” was needed to end such practices and to “respectfully repatriate stolen remains to their rightful resting places.”
She also stated, “Restitution is a key pillar of any programme of reparative justice” and promised to continue pressing the government on the issue.
The BBC reported that in October, an Oxfordshire auction house withdrew human and ancestral remains from a sale after criticism from native groups and museums.
Items initially listed included 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.
Laura Van Broekhoven, director of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, expressed outrage at the auction and praised the removal of the remains from sale.
Ribeiro-Addy further revealed in the Commons that remains were being sold on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, eBay, Etsy, and Gumtree.
She explained that these remains were often “from indigenous communities in Africa and Asia stolen during colonial expeditions,” a point she said was raised by the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO).
BABAO has condemned the commercial sale of human remains, calling it “unethical,” and warned that social media platforms were “ideal hosts for a wide variety of illicit activity” concerning such sales.
