The internet loves to call things like this “creepy,” but the Bone Museum in Bushwick is closer to unfiltered reality. In this episode of VICE’s Culture Club, Jon-Pichaya Ferry and Masha Potemkin speak with host Jackson Garrett about a collection built almost entirely from real human remains. “99.9% of everything that you see here is 100% real,” Ferry says. That 0.01% are some casts and a handful of plastic models on display for comparison.
It doesn’t take long before the obvious question comes up: where do all these bones come from? Ferry explains that many of the bones come from medical education, when skeletons were widely purchased for teaching. As doctors retired and passed away, their remains were left behind and later discovered by family members. “Their next of kin are inheriting these bones, and they have no idea what to do with them,” Ferry says.
It’s a problem few generally plan for. Someone dies, an attic gets cleaned out, and suddenly there’s a skeleton with no instructions attached. There isn’t always a straightforward process, and the ethical questions don’t come with easy answers. The museum becomes an unexpected solution. It gives the bones somewhere to go and preserves their role as teaching tools.
The conversation moves past anatomy and into the systems around it. Ferry and Potemkin explain how ownership laws vary from state to state and how a real market for human remains persists, whether people like it or not. They handle the subject carefully. Ferry mentions that “an authentic skull just sold at auction for $30 to $50,000,” while noting how history and condition can drive prices much higher.
The episode doesn’t skip the ethical questions that come with handling human remains. Ferry reflects on what it means to work with human bones and how they’ve moved through education, religion, and private hands for centuries. He doesn’t lose sight of the core issue. These were people, and they should be “treated with the utmost respect and dignity possible.”
The Bone Museum doesn’t exist to shock. It exists because human remains outlast systems, and someone has to decide what happens to them.
At the end of the episode, rapper Perry Maysun performs inside the museum, surrounded by spines and skulls, and brings his own bone story after cancer. His song title says it all: “WHO GON HOLD YA BONES?”
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