LONDON: A UK auction house has removed 18 ancient Egyptian human skulls from sale amid condemnation by a member of Parliament, The Guardian reported.

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said the sale of human remains for any purpose should be outlawed and described the trade as a “gross violation of human dignity.”

Semley Auctioneers in Dorset had listed the skulls with a guide price of £200-£300 ($250-$374) for each lot. The collection included 10 male skulls, five female and three of an uncertain sex.

Some of the skulls were listed as coming from Thebes and dating back to 1550 B.C.

They were originally collected by Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, an English soldier and archaeologist who established the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, which contains about 22,000 items.

After being housed at a separate private museum on his estate, the skulls were sold as part of a larger collection to his grandson, George Pitt Rivers, who was interned during the Second World War for supporting fascist leader Oswald Mosley.

Ribeiro-Addy said: “This despicable trade perpetuates a dark legacy of exploitation, colonialism and dehumanization. It is a gross violation of human dignity and an affront to the memory of those whose lives were unjustly taken, or whose final resting places were desecrated.

“We cannot allow profit to be made from the exploits of those who often hoped to find evidence for their racist ideology. It is imperative that we take decisive action to end such practices and ensure that the remains of those who were stolen from their homelands are respectfully repatriated.”

Britain has strict guidelines on the storage and treatment of human remains, but their sale is permitted provided they are obtained legally.

Saleroom, an online auction site, removed the skulls from sale after being contacted by The Guardian. Its website states that human remains are prohibited from sale.

A spokesperson said: “These items are legal for sale in the UK and are of archaeological and anthropological interest.

“However, after discussion with the auctioneer we have removed the items while we consider our position and wording of our policy.”

Prof. Dan Hicks, Pitt Rivers Museum’s curator of world archaeology, said: “This sale from a legacy colonial collection that was sold off in the last century shines a light on ethical standards in the art and antiquities market.

“I hope that this will inspire a new national conversation about the legality of selling human remains.”

Some of the skulls in the auction had been marked with phrenological measurements by the original collector, he said.

“The measurements of heads in order to try to define human types or racial type was something that Pitt Rivers was continuing to do with archaeological human remains in order to try to add to his interpretations of the past.”

MOSCOW: Western tanks and military hardware captured by Russian forces in Ukraine went on display in Moscow on Wednesday at an exhibition the Russian military said showed Western help would not stop it winning the war.
Long queues of people formed on what was a sunny May Day public holiday at the entrance to the exhibition, entitled “Trophies of the Russian Army,” which is being held outside a museum celebrating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
“History is repeating itself,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that the Soviet Union had in 1943 also put on a display of captured tanks and hardware, in this case from the German army.
“Strength is in the truth. It’s always been that way. In 1943 and today. These war trophies reflect our strength. The more of them there are, the stronger we are,” the ministry stated, predicting a Russian victory in what it officially calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“No Western military equipment will change the situation on the battlefield,” the statement added.
According to Western and Ukrainian critics, much of Russia’s military hardware is old or outdated, and Russian battlefield gains have resulted from sheer force of numbers and high casualties. Both sides keep the number of dead and injured a secret but are known to have suffered heavy losses.
The Moscow display, which includes US, German and French tanks supplied to Ukraine, came days after the US approved a $61 billion aid package for Kyiv and after Russia made some swift but incremental territorial gains in eastern Ukraine at a time when Kyiv’s forces say they lack ammo and manpower.
Ukraine, whose President Volodymyr Zelensky says it will eventually push Russian forces from its soil, held a similar exhibition along Kyiv’s central boulevard last summer featuring burnt-out husks of Russian tanks and fighting vehicles.
Russia, says the International Institute for Strategic Studies, has itself lost over 3,000 tanks in Ukraine amounting to its entire pre-war active inventory, but has enough lower-quality armored vehicles in storage for years of replacement and says it is now ramping up production of new tanks.
In addition to tanks, British and Australian armored vehicles seized in Ukraine are on display in Moscow along with military hardware made in Turkiye, Sweden, Austria, Finland, South Africa and the Czech Republic.
State TV’s Channel One said the star of the show was a captured American M1 Abrams battle tank, which it said had been taken out by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine using a guided rocket and kamikaze drones.
Clambering over the Abrams holding his microphone, a state TV correspondent told Russians that the tank had been billed in the United States as an indestructible “wonder weapon.”
“But that was all nonsense — look at this — all of its reputation has been destroyed,” he said.