Nearly 2 tonnes of trinkets, statues and jewelry crafted from the tusks of at least 100 slaughtered elephants are heading for a rock crusher in New York City’s Central Park to demonstrate the state’s commitment to smashing the illegal ivory trade.
The artifacts being destroyed include piles of golf ball-sized Japanese sculptures, called netsuke, intricately carved into monkeys, rabbits and other fanciful designs.
Many of the items are beautiful. Some are extremely valuable. One netsuke, depicting three men with a fish, is worth an estimated US$14,000. A pair of elaborately carved ivory towers set to be ground into dust is worth US$850,000.
Photo: AP
However, state environmental officials, who are partnering with the Wildlife Conservation Society and Tiffany & Co for yesterday’s “Ivory Crush,” say no price justifies slaughtering elephants for their tusks.
“I can’t imagine who would want this on their mantelpiece,” New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos said at an event in Albany last week showcasing US$8.5 million worth of ivory artifacts confiscated by state investigators in the past three years.
“This so-called artwork that to me is a repugnant representation of a sick trade will be pulverized into nothing as a powerful symbol of the state’s commitment to enforcing this ban,” he said.
The sale of ivory across international boundaries has been banned since 1990, but the US and many other countries have allowed people to buy and sell ivory domestically subject to certain regulations that gave smugglers loopholes.
Last year, the US Fish and Wildlife Service instituted a near-total ban on the domestic commercial ivory trade and barred sales across state lines.
Since August 2014, New York law has prohibited the sale, purchase, trade or distribution of anything made from elephant or mammoth ivory or rhinoceros horn, except in limited situations with state approval. Enforcement efforts have focused on New York City, the nation’s largest port of entry for illegal wildlife goods, state officials said.
The ivory articles heading for the crusher include more than US$4.5 million worth seized by undercover investigators from Metropolitan Fine Arts & Antiques in New York City in 2015.
In pleading guilty last week to illegally selling ivory, the store’s owners agreed to donate US$100,000 each to the World Wildlife Fund and Wild Tomorrow Fund for their endangered species protection projects.
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