ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the recent developments in the debate on collecting and exhibiting human remains in Dutch museums by highlighting the case of the restitution of six human skulls from the collection of the University Museum of Utrecht to the inhabitants of the former island of Urk. Only a few years before the Antropologica exhibition, the Urker Skulls had received some other media attention. In their official request for the restitution of the skulls, the Committee Skulls of Urk emphasized the fact that Urk is a very close, deeply religious community in which family ties are important and the dead body is treated with respect. The Dutch government was skeptical about the perspectives of the former islanders: they ill-educated fishermen who had lost their main source of income. The museum decided to bring the case to the Ethical Committee of the Netherlands Museums Association after which both parties agreed to accept the verdict of the Ethical Committee as binding.
