Markets in Bones

India has long been the world's primary source of bones used in medical study...Now, 22 years after India's export ban, there are signs that the trade never ended. Black-market vendors in West Bengal continue to supply human skeletons and skulls using the time-honored method: Rob graves, separate soft flesh from unyielding calcium, and deliver the bones to distributors — who assemble them and ship them to dealers around the globe.

From "Inside India's Underground Trade in Human Remains" by Scott Carney. Aside from the obvious, what surprised me most in the article was the difference in the prices of skeletons overseas and in India: according to Carney, a full skeleton costs $70,000 $3,000 in the US yet only $45 in India. (Note: earlier figure incorrect, thanks to Scott Carney for the correction)