According to a BBC report, the Swan Fine Art at Tetsworth, Oxfordshire has withdrawn the auction of the Naga ancestral human remain listed as a “19th century horned Naga human skull”. The Naga human remain was valued at 3,500-4,000 UK pounds and the provenance is traced to the Ex Francios Coppens Collection from Belgium.
The Naga ancestral human skull is part of an auction titled “The curious collector sale” and was catalogued alongside antiquarian books, manuscripts, paintings, jewehy, ceramics and furniture.
On October 7, 2024, the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) was informed of the auction which led to an appeal for the Government’s intervention. Taking up the matter, the Chief Minister of Nagaland Neiphiu Rio wrote to S. Jaishankar, Union Minister for External Affairs, on October 8, seeking immediate attention and intervention. Rio requested the Union Minister to take up the matter with the Indian High Commission in the UK to undertake necessary steps.
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“The Naga human remains were taken without people’s consent — in effect appropriated by colonial administrators and soldiers who occupied the Naga homeland in the 19th century even as Naga villages resisted British punitive expeditions. These human remains symbolize the violence that the British colonial power unleashed on the Nagas. Throughout the period of British rule, the Naga people were defined as ‘savages’ and ‘headhunters’, which are insulting tropes that continue to be perpetuated today. We are offended and deeply hurt that the skull of a Naga ancestor is being auctioned by an art dealer in the United Kingdom,” expressed the FNR.
Laura Van Broekhoven, Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum in a post on social media platform X had also urged for the withdrawal of the auction. “Dear @SwanAtTetsworth Please, immediately pull from tomorrow’s auction the human and ancestral remains of Naga, Shuar, Dayak, Kota, Fon, Vili people and other communities in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Nigeria, Congo, Ecuador, Nagaland, Benin,” stated the post.