Social media platforms increasingly serve as marketplaces for skulls and other human remains, and the UK market operates in a legal void, reports The Guardian. The Human Tissue Act 2004 focused on medical, scientific, and public display uses, leaving gaps that allowed online sales with few controls. Images shared by sellers on social media are not routinely interpreted as falling within the law’s scope. “The private use of these things is in a legal void,” said Imogen Jones, a professor of law at the University of Leeds.
A renewed push to tighten UK law over the online trade in human remains is gathering pace as MP Paul Boateng planned to meet Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy next month to appeal for a change in the law, with concerns about the trade in remains of ancestors from Indigenous communities. The escalation came as fresh exhibits appeared on Instagram, including skulls and bones with remnants of tissue and dirt indicating recent exhumations.
It is not automatically a crime to possess or sell historical human remains in the UK, even if unlawfully exhumed. Desecrating a grave is an offence, but remains are not technically property and can not be legally owned or stolen. “All human remains should be treated with respect and dignity. We expect auction houses to scrutinise their activities and for anyone trading in human remains to consider carefully the ethical implications of this activity, which many understandably find deeply disturbing,” said a spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. “The theft of any remains would be an act of repugnant desecration,” and police should act “using the full force of the law,” a DCMS source told The Guardian. “Consent, dignity, quality, and honesty and openness,” should guide activities within its remit, said a spokesperson for the Human Tissue Authority.
Experts described the situation as opening the door to “a new era of body snatching”. “You’ve got people who are breaking into mausolea and who are taking remains away to sell them for people who think this is gothic, quaint [or] supernatural,” said Dame Sue Black, a forensic anthropologist. “It’s gruesome. It’s why we say ‘Rest in peace.’ You don’t expect your body to be dug up and sold,” she said. “If you can make the sale of a bird’s nest illegal, surely to goodness you can make the sale of a human body illegal. Having a necklace made out of somebody’s teeth isn’t acceptable to people,” she said.
Trish Biers of the University of Cambridge saw a substantial increase in sales of human remains in recent years. “Social media has completely changed the market. It’s not illegal and that’s the problem,” said Biers. Antique dealers also expressed concern that pieces looted from graves were invading the market, making it hard to distinguish legitimate from suspicious items. Over the past five years, the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology blocked more than 200 sales from auction houses, shops, and online sellers.
One shop marketed a monthly human skull subscription, mummified body parts, shrunken heads, and masks and wallets made from human leather. In Essex, the shop Curiosities from the 5th Corner featured shelves of skulls and a hybrid animal skeleton. “When it comes to human stuff, I’ll take anything, pretty much. As long as it’s been ethically sourced, may I add,” said owner Henry Scragg in a YouTube interview. He acknowledged in a podcast that some older skulls may have been recently excavated to make room for new burials or by other legal means. “Selling a skull to people who will look after it, appreciate it, and put it on a shelf and love it could be viewed as more respectful than burying it six foot under,” he said. “When you dig up a human skull, what are you going to do with it? You could hand it to a museum. They’ve already got loads of them so they don’t need any more,” he said.
Mattaeus Ball, a Reading-based trader in macabre art and oddities, announced he was no longer trading in human remains due to legality and ethics concerns. “The waters are becoming too muddy with stolen pieces, pieces that are grave-robbed, so many things that just aren’t right. And people keep thinking I’m dealing in that, when I’m not,” he said in an Instagram post.
Forensic specialists pointed to evidence suggesting recent exhumations. “The white areas tell you that it is recent damage as it exposes the non-coloured bone below,” said Black about one skull. Another expert identified “patches of what could be darker organic matter, possible rootlets in the sutures and orbits, possible rodent gnawing” on a skull. At least three skulls showed softening consistent with immersion in acidic fluids inside a coffin. One skull priced at £995 on a Belfast-based site showed root damage suggesting burial in soil, and another marketed for £795 on a UK-based site appeared to have manganese oxide staining seen in remains excavated from old graves. The site owner disputed roots or rodent causes. Some skulls probably originated from outside the UK, including Asia and Africa, and may date to the 19th century, said Nicholas Marquez-Grant of Cranfield University.
Other online sellers described acquiring bones found by construction or sewage contractors, often without clear provenance. Jones suggested that cases such as mortuary abuser David Fuller showed UK law did not reflect the general expectation that dead bodies and body parts should be treated with a baseline level of dignity and respect across all sectors.
Warnings about the sale of human remains were not new; in 2022, Live Science revealed dozens of active sellers on Facebook and Instagram, some promoting openly and others within closed groups, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported. Other reports linked the trade directly to grave robbery, and studies in journals such as Mortality and Crime, Law and Social Change stated that the market’s size had not been sufficiently studied but already fed a global network of illicit deals. Experts advised potential buyers of antiques or rare pieces to request official provenance documents and ensure compliance with import and export laws to avoid involvement in the trade.
“The continual trade in human beings even after death, and their continued objectification even after death, is deeply repugnant and a source of shame to our country,” said Boateng.
The preparation of this article relied on a news-analysis system.