Endangered species: ivory

Anthony Browne, chairman of The British Art Market Federation (BAMF), was due to meet with environment secretary Michael Gove this week (October 10) to discuss the proposed ban on sales of ivory in the UK.

It’s taken more than a year to materialise but at last, the long-awaited consultation on ivory has arrived.

The art and antiques trade has criticised a report on the ivory market, arguing it “fails to distinguish between genuine works of art and the trade in modern carvings made from tusks”.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is to push ahead with a consultation on the trade in ivory before making any changes to legislation.

BADA president and former MP for Kensington, Victoria Borwick, addressed SOFAA's biannual gathering of auctioneers on June 30. She tackled auctioneer-dealer relations, the ivory question, parliament's understanding of the antiques trade and the cultural property bill.

The Conservative Party has omitted any mention of ivory in its 2017 manifesto published last week, giving hope an uncompromising ban on the trade will not be introduced.

The Conservative Party is expected to rethink its previous pledge for a ‘total ban’ on ivory sales in its election manifesto, due for publication this week.

A judge has ruled against a London gallery over the seizure by UK Border Force of a Chinese silver tea set containing a tiny quantity of elephant ivory.

MADAM – I write for the purposes of maintaining the trade in general, and in advance of knowing the provisions in the forthcoming law regulating the UK ivory trade (which can only act to the detriment of the trade and do nothing to save the elephant). The law could consider the separation of items solely made of ivory from those that contain ivory as a constituent part.