You are on page 1of 3

B

Reprinted with permission from:

behind the scenes


800.610.5771 or International 011-561.655.8778.

Click to subscribe

A Tale of Two Ivories


By Menachem Wecker

GH

ne would be hard-pressed to find


two objects as different as the Cloisters Cross and George Washingtons false
teeth. The cross, which is on view at the
Metropolitan Museum of Arts Cloisters
branch in upper Manhattan, dates to the
12th century and features biblical scenes.
The dentures were crafted 600 years later
and are kept at Washingtons Mount Vernon estate in northern Virginia. Popular
misconceptions abound about the first
presidents teeth being made of wood; in
fact, they consist of cow, horse, and human
teeth, as well as elephant and walrus ivory.
The last happens to be the same material
used in the cross.
Prized throughout history as a material that allows simultaneously for intricate,
The Cloisters Cross
compressed detail and beautiful luminosBritish, 12th century,
ity, ivory can be found in countless artistic
Walrus ivory,
and historical treasures. A work such as the
22 5/8 x 14 1/4 in.
early-18th-century Fall of the Rebel Angels at
Metropolitan Museum
the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas
of Art, New York City,
City can be so dazzling that one might even
Cloisters Collection,
forget ivorys base origins. But thats becom63.12
ing increasingly unlikely as a chorus of voices
seeks an all-out ban on this material.
At first blush, the case against ivory
appears a slam dunk. The photographs and
videos of rhinoceroses, elephants, and hippopotamuses with severed tusks writhing
in pain, or worse, are horrifically mesmerizing. And there are the statistics cited frequently in online campaigns and news articles: one elephant
is killed for its tusks every 15 minutes. Africa has lost 64 percent of its
elephants in the past decade, and if no drastic changes are implemented,
these large mammals could be extinct on that continent by 2025.
In the 1940s, there may have been as many as 3 million to 5 million
African elephants; today, the World Wide Fund for Nature puts that number at between 470,000 and 700,000. (A broader Great Elephant Census
is due out in mid-2015.) In the court of public opinion, individual animals,
such as the Kenyan elephant beside whose carcass Chinese former basketball player Yao Ming stood (while filming a documentary about poaching), are powerful microcosms for the larger herds and their threatened
futures. Wildlife trafficking is now a multi-billion-dollar business allied
with the same global criminal networks that run drugs, take hostages, and
finance illegal arms sales and terrorism. Fresh ivory is carved into objects

for household decoration and ritual use, and


is also crushed into powder form as an aphrodisiac. The largest market for these items is
in East Asia, particularly China.
Differing Views
Then there are the people on both sides
of a U.S. government policy announced
in February 2014 that is aimed at depressing the global ivory market. (These people
are also divided over a New York state law,
passed in August, that prohibits the sale of
items that are more than 20 percent ivory
and less than 100 years old.) To truly understand what is at stake, its important to meet
Elizabeth Chitwood and Scott Defrin, who
are on opposite ends of the spectrum.
A church music director based in
Gainesville, Florida, Chitwood is founder of
the blog and awareness campaign Elephantopia, which drew 11,000 signatures for a
petition to the Pope asking him to say no to
using ivory in religious art. It later partnered
with the Houston Zoo and Whole Foods on
a march for elephants. Elephants have always
been Chitwoods favorites, and she still
remembers feeling dwarfed as a 6-year-old
standing near one at the local zoo.
Living in South Africa in 2009 led
Chitwood to research poaching. She learned
of its ties to terrorism, its dangers for both
poacher and ranger, and the elephants role as Africas keystone species,
upon which many trees and animals depend. Without the elephants,
Chitwood says, who knows what the African continent would look like?
An Africa without elephants, to channel the novelist Gay Talese, is like
Picasso without paint, or a Ferrari without fuel only worse.
And then there is Defrin, who, since 1992, has owned the New York
City-based European Decorative Arts Company, which specializes in 17th- to
19th-century ivory objects. When Defrin, whose father began collecting in
the 1970s, discusses the efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the
New York state government to ban ivory, he compares their attempts to control who sees what art with another regimes intense interest in censorship.
They dont want to recognize that ivory has been used by mankind
for thousands of years, he says, and that its a highly venerated material
they have just decided should not exist anymore. They want to wipe it away
from human history. I think we saw that happen with a man named Adolf

FineArtConnoisseur.com | January/February 2015

David Heschler (Ulm, Germany, 1611-1667)


Christ Bound to a Column
c. 1650-60, Ivory, 7 3/4 x 2 1/2 in. (not including
the wooden base)
Courtesy of Scott Defrin, European Decorative Arts
Company, New York City

Hitler in the 1930s, when he decided what art the


Germans were supposed to see. If presented with
a world without antique ivories 20 years down the
road, people would look back in horror as we
would today if Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis hadnt
helped save New York Citys Grand Central Terminal. How can you go ahead and destroy all of that
important material? Defrin asks.
Destroying ivories whether one views
them as baby or bathwater is precisely what
is being proposed. On November 14, 2013, Fish
and Wildlife destroyed an estimated six tons of
elephant ivory in an ivory crush. An official
agency Instagram album contains striking images
of piles upon piles of ivory figurines and jewelry
ultimately reduced to small pieces. The overall
effect is of smashed crackers or seashells. The
album also includes photos of event speakers,
from government officials and conservators to
C-list star power: Kristin Davis, Kristin Bauer,
and Joely Fisher.
Back at Headquarters
The sprawling offices where the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service operates in Falls Church, Virginia, is
part of the Skyline Mall; an Olive Garden, DSW, and
Burlington Coat Factory loom across the street. The nearest subway station
is a 20-minute bus ride away from the office, which was recently relocated to
save money, according to Gavin Shire, the chief of public affairs.
Craig Hoover, chief of the services wildlife trade and conservation
branch, acknowledges that a lot of misinformation has surrounded Fish
and Wildlifes February announcement. We announced early that these
are the actions we are going to take, but the interpretation was that we
took those actions, says Hoover, who resembles a young Dick Van Dyke,
with the intense gaze of John Malkovich.
The general consensus of all of the stakeholders who have checked
in with Fish and Wildlife following the early announcement has been
support of the legislations goal of protecting elephants, Hoover says.
The challenge is sorting out those things that are actually impacting
elephants in the wild, and those things that are not.
Fish and Wildlifes national strategy contains a three-pronged
suite of actions, Hoover explains. Directors Order No. 210 narrows
the exceptions to the existing 1989 ivory import moratorium under the
African Elephant Conservation Act; the strategy places a heavier burden
on sellers to demonstrate that ivories came into the country prior to a
species being listed in Section I of CITES, or arrived with a pre-convention certificate; and the service is proposing changes to the special rule
under the Endangered Species Act. (CITES stands for Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.)
Fish and Wildlife has amended some parts of the Directors Order
in response to concerns voiced by the public, Hoover says. For example,
there was an exception for ivory items that came into the United States
for non-commercial purposes through customs-designated ports before
1976, but the service received feedback that some of those ports werent
designated until 1983.

FineArtConnoisseur.com | January/February 2015

Changes that may loom on the horizon,


Hoover adds, may modify the special rule under
the Endangered Species Act, which allows the U.S.
government to propose special prohibitions once
a species is listed as endangered. It allows us to
be a little bit more creative, essentially, Hoover
says, noting that it would allow the public and
impacted entities to respond. Its a way that
we are involving the public, so that we take the
actions that are appropriate for the species and
may accommodate some activities that dont really
jeopardize elephants in the wild.
Asked to hazard a guess at the scope of the
illegal ivory trade, which also involves fakes masquerading as genuine antiques, Hoover says it is
hard to quantify. But Victor Gordon, a dealer in
Philadelphia from whom Fish and Wildlife seized
more than a ton of ivories recently, was not an
anomaly, he says. None of the pieces the government has smashed to date have been antiques,
but what seems to some to be the indiscriminate,
umbrella nature of the national legislation is causing much concern in the art market.
A Field Suddenly Frozen
A total ban on trading objects of art-historical importance even
those made over 100 years ago, including pieces made as early as the
Middle Ages is very regrettable, and, in our opinion, will not have an
impact upon the current, illegal, and unfortunate poaching of the African elephant, says Ben Janssens, who until recently chaired the board of
The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht and still directs his own gallery
of Asian art in London.
The Fish and Wildlife regulations, according to Janssens, appear
drastic and to offer no flexibility where genuine antique ivory objects
are concerned. There will be, he predicts, substantial consequences for
the antiques trade, which will impact heavily upon our cultural heritage
of both Western and Eastern art.
Martin Levy, the director of H. Blairman and Sons in London, agrees.
Shippers are advising against sending ivory to the U.S., and serious dealers, auction houses, and collectors are heeding this advice, he says. As
things stand, the trade in a whole range of works of art made of, or including, ivory will be driven from the States. Will this not lead to a loss in taxes
from corporate profits and sales, as well as from less tangible sources such
as hotels, restaurants, and airlines, as would-be collectors are driven away?
Defrin, the dealer, doesnt expect his New York state license to sell ivory
to be renewed when it expires next year, so he says he is done with New
York. For the most part, most of my customers are from out of state anyway.
Levy understands why huge concerns surround the plight of the
African elephant. Its extinction would be tragic and must be averted, he
says, but he worries about a law of unintended consequences in banning
culturally important ivory artifacts. The elephant will not be protected
by stigmatizing works of art, he says. I feel confident that, with a degree
of common sense and humility on both sides, a sensible and pragmatic
solution can be reached: one that stamps out the illicit trade in illegally

On November 14, 2013, representatives of many countries, conservationists, and


journalists gathered to watch an estimated six tons of confiscated ivory items get
crushed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Photo: Gavin Shire, USFWS

Only fragments remained after the crush.


Photo: Gavin Shire, USFWS

slaughtered ivory, while allowing the world to continue learning from works
of art created in earlier periods and when different standards prevailed.
What Eike Schmidt, the curator of decorative arts and sculpture at the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, finds particularly absurd is that the moment
in the 19th century when people starting aggressively hunting elephants
was the same one when artists ceased using ivory. (He notes an exception:
some 20 or 30 years in which Belgian Art Nouveau used ivory.) Its been
more than 200 years since it was used for artistic purposes, he says. What
is being made now is fake in wood or plastic. Its pseudo-tribal carvings
made by some sweatshop, probably in China or Hong Kong.
Many U.S. museum curators and registrars have recently found
that ivory masterworks they want to borrow from, or lend to, foreign
institutions will not clear U.S. customs since they dont have the right
documentation. Naturally, all parties are fearful that their objects will
be confiscated by U.S. agents and destroyed. Similar problems are facing administrators working in the field of classical music, where many
items such as woodwinds and violin bows contain small ivory parts that
may not be thoroughly documented, even if they are centuries old. And
believe it or not, many gun dealers are equally vexed, since antique firearms often contain ivory inlays.
Under the current legislation on interstate trade, a Pennsylvania
native who, say, inherits a collection of ivories from a deceased relative and
drives it to New York to get it appraised, could lose it all if pulled over for
speeding and found to be lacking a CITES permit. The policeman has no
choice but to confiscate it, Schmidt says. And it will be destroyed.
When it came time to secure the Fish and Wildlife permits needed
by the major New York auction house where Sarah Hassan once worked,
it was such a headache, she recalls. Horror stories of other salerooms
being raided were recounted by her firms in-house legal counsel in order
to get the staff s attention: Theyll come and clean you out, and fine the
hell out of you, Hassan says of Fish and Wildlifes strong-arm extension. The laws implications have seemed to change weekly, and have
hit some colleagues harder than others, particularly the Japanese department, Hassan notes. She and her fellow specialists agreed that elephants
need protection, but they failed to see a connection between old ivories
and todays elephants. When youre selling Mrs. Smiths tea set from
Arizona and shes 89 years old, you shouldnt have to threaten her with
going to jail, Hassan notes. These are family heirlooms. A lot of people
dont have dated records going back.

commerce, even if it is applied purely intrastate. It is also expressly preempted by the Endangered Species Act, according to McCullough, a
former associate counsel at Sothebys.
Auctions are intended, McCullough says, to attract the most buyers in order to generate the highest bids. This purpose would clearly be
frustrated if a New York auctioneer were forced to hold different auctions for different lots for New York bidders and non-New York bidders,
he explains. The result would be lower hammer prices and more unsold
lots. That would clearly burden interstate commerce.
It is also, he says, unclear how a gallery or private dealer could avoid
hurting its sales if required to segregate its marketing and sales efforts
between New York and out-of-state buyers. McCullough concludes,
therefore, that New Yorks bill cannot govern Internet sales, which are
necessarily global and national in scope, and the legislation can only
legally apply to non-commercial sales and family transfers where all of
the parties and the ivory are in-state.
In the short term, the legislation is hurting the decorative arts
market, McCullough says, but he doesnt expect it to last: The Obama
administrations actions will likely be overturned by legislation in 2015,
because several very powerful groups, including the National Rifle
Association, are seeking legislation. (Since he commented, the newly
strengthened Republican majority in both houses of Congress will probably side with the NRA, and they are probably reluctant to ally with the
Clinton Foundation, which has been a vocal proponent of the new law.)
Moreover, McCullough notes, the New York Ivory Law will likely be
struck down in federal court in 2015, because the law is preempted by
the Endangered Species Act.
Moving forward, the broader question that will require careful attention, says Schmidt, of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, is whether other
countries will just copy and paste this regulation, or whether it will be
a largely U.S.-led effort. Hoover, of the Fish and Wildlife office, points
to major buy-in from China, Thailand, Hong Kong, and elsewhere, and
their commitment can be measured in tons of ivories crushed in those
countries, which he says were responses to the U.S. ivory crush.
Schmidt hopes that whatever happens on the global scale, it wont
oversimplify the nature of the problem. For me personally, because I do
love nature and I care a lot about that, my key point is that there is this
false notion of saying, You have to decide between the animal and the
art, he says. You do not have to do that. n

The Prognosis
When Michael McCullough, a partner at the New York law firm
Pearlstein & McCullough, which serves the domestic and international art
markets, reads through the legislation attempting to ban the ivory trade, he
sees quite a few problems. New Yorks ivory law cannot burden interstate

Menachem Wecker holds an M.A. in art history from George Washington University, and writes for the Washington Post, National Catholic Reporter, Jewish Daily
Forward, and Houston Chronicle. Based in Washington, D.C., he co-authored the book
Consider No Evil: Two Faith Traditions and the Problem of Academic Freedom in
Religious Higher Education (2014).

FineArtConnoisseur.com | January/February 2015

You might also like