Ancestor skull · human remains — not for sale

This object is not for sale. It is recorded in the inventory but hidden from the shop.

A human ancestor skull: the cranium is partly overmodelled and carries carved spiral ornament, the surface darkened by decades of patina. Skulls like this were kept and decorated in ancestor cults across the Pacific and Southeast Asia — they carried the link to the forebears, they were not ornaments.

Human remains are not merchandise. In Switzerland ethnographic pieces of this kind also fall under the Cultural Property Transfer Act, and the major selling platforms exclude them explicitly in their terms. If you own such a piece you keep it — it cannot be sold responsibly.

The precise origin is undocumented. Ethnological collections would be the right address for a determination, for instance Museum Rietberg in Zurich or the Musée d'ethnographie in Neuchâtel.