UK Museums Hold Over 260,000 Human Remains, Report Finds
A Guardian investigation summarized by Hyperallergic reports that UK museums and institutions hold more than 263,000 items of human remains across 241 museums, including 28,914 items confirmed to originate from outside Europe, many from former British colonies. The report found 11,856 non-European remains from Africa and nearly 10,000 from Asia, with smaller numbers from Oceania, North America, and South America. Two institutions held the largest shares: London’s Natural History Museum (11,856 non-European remains, including the largest collections from Asia and the Americas) and Cambridge University’s Duckworth Collections (8,740 non-European remains, including 6,223 from Africa). UCL museologist Toyin Agbetu called the scale “breathtaking,” while the Natural History Museum said it follows care and return guidelines and has “not refused to return any remains” when connections to requesting communities are established; the investigation also noted some unnamed institutions could not fully account for remains stored unidentified in cardboard boxes.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Museums Unearthed, Biennales in the Crosshairs