At what point does grave robbery become archeology?
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At a thrift store some years ago, I found a portrait from the early 1800's. It turned out it was of William Wirt; that got my interest in William Wirt and among other things his grave and its robbery is relevant perhaps to this thread.
Even though grave robbing and disturbing graves is illegal, in the US it is legal own human bones with a few exceptions: the bones of Native Americans are federally regulated and some localities have restrictions. Thus, when Robert White, a collector of oddities called the manager of the Congressional Cemetery in 2003 and asked if they wanted William Wirt's skull back, he wasn't risking jail.
William Wirt was one of the most well known politicians of his day, though now largely forgotten (author, historian, legislator, longest serving US Attorney General in history and a presidential candidate carrying one state in 1832). His skull had been stolen; when, why and by whom remains unknown; the Smithsonian verified it was Mr. Wirt's skull and it was placed back in the vault.
In 1987, ten men paid a land owner to let them dig around where known indian graves were located along the Ohio River. These men went in with backhoes, totally destroying everything just to get the artifacts buried with the indians. In doing so, they just threw the bones everywhere to get them out of the way. You can read in this story they were arrested on a misdemeanor, but what isn't mentioned (I lived up there when this was going on) is when a new county attorney took office several months after the arrests, he decided the state was taking too long to prosecute so he dropped all charges. But the state legislature got it in gear after all this was covered in the National Geographic and made grave desecration a felony. If you were found anywhere near a known indian burial site and have any kind of digging utensil in your possession, you will be arrested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slack_Farm
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