With the Egyptian ‘mummy’ as its locus, this paper traces the development of antiquities laws in England from the Victorian-era in the eighteenth century to the present, as deliberate instruments of British Empire, thus enabling the lawful acquisition, circulation, and retention of Egyptian artefacts and human remains. This study was spurred in part by the March 2025 policy brief, Laying Ancestors to Rest, published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations in the UK, which calls for an end of the public display of human remains in the UK and for reforms to the Human Tissue Act 2004 to criminalise their sale and ongoing trade. 

This paper situates early legislation, including the British Museum Act 1754, within the context of British Egyptomania and colonial governance, demonstrating how legal doctrines legitimised artefact extraction and appropriation from Egypt. Placing specific emphasis on the ‘mummy,’ this paper analyses Victorian mummymania to understand the historical commodification, ownership, and consumption of ‘mummies’ in upper-class England, such as through the popular pigment ‘mummy brown,’ the spectacle of ‘unrolling parties,’ and the medicine mummiya, to then examine the legislative gaps that continue to permit the commodification and public display of Egyptian 'mummies' in contemporary England. Shifting focus to contemporary legislation, including the British Museum Act 1963, this paper demonstrates how colonial legacies persist, thus rendering restitution and repatriation of artefacts legally difficult, or in some situations, presently impossible. By foregrounding law as a site of colonial power, this study contributes to discussions on the enduring legacies of colonial collecting and the subsequent barriers to current repatriation efforts in the UK.