London's Highgate cemetery is opening new burial plots offering the chance to be buried alongside famous people. These new plans mean that anyone who wants and pays can be buried next to Karl Marx.
But the cost is prohibitive, as a cremation plot in the cemetery starts at $6,000 and a full burial plot costs $30,000.
Marx's tomb is a tourist attraction. Visitors are not necessarily communists, but those who vandalize the tomb or want to blow it up are generally anti-communists.
The most recent graffiti left on Marx's tomb in 2019 read "ideology of starvation" and "architect of genocide".
While you don't have to be a communist to visit Marx's grave, being buried next to him can give you an idea of the ideologies you stand for.
Such a "status purchase" would hardly find a place in Marx's communist ideology and the ideas he espoused.
Ian Dungavell, chief executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery, says it is important to accommodate new burials because they help Highgate cemetery to be a "living" focal point.
