An auction house in England has withdrawn a collection of eighteen Ancient Egyptian Human skulls from sale following a complaint by a member of the UK's parliament. The skulls, which originated from the city of Thebes and are thought to date to from the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550-1292 BC), were brought to the UK by the Victorian adventurer and archaeologist Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, who may have excavated them himself or purchased them, but retained in his private collection rather than being donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford along with much of his collection. The collection was eventually inherited by Pitt Rivers' grandson, George Pitt Rivers, a prominent supporter of Oswald Mosely's Union of British Fascists, who's actions led to him being interned by the British authorities during the Second World War.
George Pitt Rivers' political activities impacted badly on the family fortune, and much of the private collection was sold off during his lifetime, including the collection of skulls, which was sold in the 1960s. The collection came back onto the market following the death of its most recent owner earlier this year, being listed online by Dorset-based Semley Auctioneers, with a guide price of £200-£300 per skull.
The appearance of the skulls for sale drew complaints from a large number of people, with the items eventually being removed following a complaint from Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Member of Parliament for Streatham and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations. The sale of Human bodyparts in the UK is not illegal, as long as they are 'obtained legally' (essentially from a historic, probably colonial, source such as the Pitt Rivers Collection) and not sold for medical use.
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