Collectors and Human Remains

The petition referred to above contains the following anecdote justifying the opposition to promoting metal detecting "the most egregious encounter in New Mexico, where metal detector enthusiasts dug into the graves of Civil War era soldiers, scattered their bones and removed skulls to put in trophy rooms". I was reminded of the self-righteous post the other day of a collector on a metal detecting blog near you about proposals to include a skeleton in an English Heritage museum display which he used as a springbord for an attack on "evil archaeologists". The detectorist himself uses this as a screen avatar:

Readers might remember a series of past posts here about the use by collectors and dealers of mummified human remains (Egyptian and Inca) as collectables.