AMSTERDAM (Reuters Life!) - Advocates of tombstone owner rights scored a major victory in the Netherlands after the government changed the law to allow them to trade or use them as they please as long as the grave remained in place.
The Dutch interior ministry said on Monday that all tombstones, irrespective of when they were erected, would remain the property of those who commissioned them until such time as the cemetery took over the grave for reuse.
"They can take the tombstone and use it for a new grave, sell it or keep it in their garden, whatever. The point is, it's their tombstone," a ministry spokesman said.
The amendment to the law, covered by the Act for the Disposal of the Dead, was carried out following a request of municipalities and a Dutch cemeteries organization, the ministry said in a statement.