They say the lack of regulation means much of the buying and selling of skulls and bones falls into a legal grey zone; and that the growing online market risks fuelling a new era of “body snatching”, with reports of bones being removed from crypts and graveyards in the UK and abroad.
“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 Black, the president of St John’s College, Oxford.
“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.”
Dr Trish Biers, from the University of Cambridge, coordinates a taskforce at the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO) that investigates the sale and trade of human remains.
She said there had been a substantial increase in sales in the UK in recent years. In the past five years, the BABAO had blocked more than 200 sales, including from auction houses, shops and online sellers.
“Social media has completely changed the market,” she said. “It’s not illegal and that’s the problem.”
Dr Nicholas Marquez-Grant, a forensic anthropologist at Cranfield University, said that, based on anatomical features, some of the skulls probably originated from outside the UK, including Asia and Africa, and may date as far back as the 19th century.
