A dedicated collector spent more than 40 years buying up individual bones at sales, and piecing the composite skeleton together ... but it had been an icon even before.

The skeleton with a nail lodged through his heel ... Read next BI Tech Memo An icon in the shape of an angle pointing down.

The skeleton sold out online in April and July ... secrets go public — unfiltered in your inbox weekly. Sign up An icon in the shape of an angle pointing down.

In 1910, during the Mexican Revolution, Posada created an illustration of a female skeleton dressed in an ... her status as ...