UK auction house cancels ‘disrespectful’ sale of shrunken heads and skulls

Swan auction house in Oxfordshire had been criticised by museums and Indian minister over sale of human remains

A British auction house has withdrawn from sale human and ancestral remains including shrunken heads and skulls from communities across the globe after criticism from native groups and museums.

Among items initially listed were 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, the BBC reported.