An international group of 200 scientists and experts in looted art are protesting   about the sale last month of a skull belonging to a member of the Fon people from Benin by Amsterdam auction house De Zwaan.

The skull, which was described at auction as a “power object”, was sold for €800. According to the protesters, who include scientists from universities in Berlin, Benin and Cameroon, the skull may have been stolen from an ancestral shrine and selling such objects goes against the mourning rituals of West African countries.

The letter writers said the auction house should remove any “skulls and body parts of African people from any current or future auction,” the Parool quoted the letter as saying.

According to Dutch looted art specialist Jos van Beurden, who also signed the letter, the auction house cannot be held legally liable but that “morally speaking” it is no longer acceptable to trade in human remains that have most likely been looted in colonial times.

Van Beurden said it is surprising how little is being done to prevent trade in human remains. “If you want to go through customs carrying a skull with feathers and shells you will be stopped, not because of the skull but because it is illegal to import indigenous shells and feathers,” he told the paper. “Flora and fauna are better protected than people.”

Protest tegen verkoop schedel uit Benin door Amsterdams veilinghuis: ‘Zou gestolen kunnen zijn uit voorouderlijk heiligdom’ https://t.co/ttGj8eBT0N

— Het Parool (@parool) December 18, 2024

According to Van Beurden skulls regularly come up for sale, including at prestigious auction houses, and can fetch up to €100,000

De Zwaan, which according to its website “specialises in tribal art”, has not commented on questions about the origin of the skull or the protest.