[KaiserPro]

> there has been a rich history of Western (colonial) powers looting graves or remembrances of the dead

There is a rich history of everyone looting graves. This isn't a colonial vs other thing here. Sacking of places is common and still happens (see syria, afganistan & the sudans. ) We just happen to know about the stuff the western people did because they documented it and put it on display. (unlike the romans, persians, greeks, byzantines, ottermans, et al. didn't loose it to the next empire, yet.)

There used to be a bunch of TV shows where they'd routinely dig up bones and put them on shelves in storage.

Applying to exhume a body isn't that difficult in the UK either: https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-an-exhumation-licence

[eigenket]

That license is not relevant here, thats for relatively recent bodies where you want to dig them up to move them to a different grave or cremate them or something.

The most relevant thing here is that the remains are being taken outside the UK (the study is being done by US and Australian universities) so you need some permission to export them.