Harvard removed the human skin binding from a book held in Houghton Library and apologized for “past failures in its stewardship of the book” in a statement Wednesday.

The announcement marks the conclusion of an internal review after the book — Arsène Houssaye’s “Des destinées de l’ame,” French for “On the Destiny of the Soul” — was mentioned in the Fall 2022 Report of the Steering Committee on Human Remains in University Museum Collections.

In the statement, Harvard Library apologized for having “objectified and compromised the dignity of the human being whose remains were used for its binding.”

Harvard Library spokesperson Kerry Conley wrote in a separate emailed statement that the library regrets “two…