GUWAHATI: Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio sought EAM S Jaishankar’s immediate intervention to halt the UK auction of a “19th-century horned Naga human skull”. Rio described the auction as an “act of dehumanisation that is considered as continued colonial violence upon our people”.
Tetsworth-based Swan Fine Art’s website had listed the skull as among the items to go under the hammer on Wednesday but it was removed from the auction catalogue late Tuesday evening.It remains unclear whether the auction has been officially cancelled or the skull only removed from the website. Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum — which houses anthropology and archaeology collections from various world cultures — posted on X that “the Naga ancestral remains have been withdrawn from sale”.
A California-based Naga professor of anthropology, Dolly Kikon, had flagged this auction on X on Monday saying: “Naga ancestral human remains continue to be collector’s item in the 21st century!”
In his letter to Jaishankar, Rio stated he has been informed by an organisation of Church leaders and representatives of a civil society group, Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), about the auction of “Naga human remains”.
“You will agree that the human remains of any deceased person belong to those people and their land. Moreover, the auctioning of human remains deeply hurts the sentiments of the people, is an act of dehumanisation and is considered as continued colonial violence upon our people,” Rio wrote to the external affairs minister.
FNR informed Rio that skull value is estimated at £3,500-4,000 — Rs 3.85 lakh to Rs 4.4 lakh.
