Antiques Roadshow Season 20

May 4, 2015, 6:34 am

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On May 30th Antiques Roadshow Season 20 starts in Tucson, Arizona. We were honored to have started with the show in Season 1 in San Antonio and will be in every city for this current season. I will be flying o Tucson, Spokane, and Cleveland and then driving to Omaha, Little Rock and Charleston. The plan is to arrive Thursday afternoon and then return home on Sunday. If you are in or around any of these cities or enroute to the ones I am driving and need appraisal or authentication services, contact us and maybe we can schedule a visit.

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Update Federal Ban on Ivory Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 8:48 am

≫ Next: Germany's Answer for Cultural Property Protection - Summer 2015

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1.WASHINGTON DC - fws.gov U.S. Fish and Wldlife Service
Antique Dealers
Can I currently sell elephant ivory products within the United States?
African elephant ivory that a seller can demonstrate was lawfully imported prior to January 18, 1990—the date that the African elephant was listed in CITES Appendix I—and ivory imported under a CITES pre-Convention certificate can be sold within the United States (across state lines and within a state). Asian elephant ivory sold in interstate co

mmerce within the United States must meet the strict criteria of the ESA antiques exception.
Because the current rules regarding interstate commerce are different for African elephant ivory compared to Asian elephant ivory, a seller must be able to identify the ivory to species. This could be demonstrated using CITES permits or certificates, a qualified appraisal, or documents that detail date and place of manufacture, etc.
Can I currently import antique items containing African elephant ivory for commercial purposes?
No. The Service no longer allows any commercial importation of African elephant ivory. This prohibition, which was originally established via the 1989 African Elephant Conservation Act (AECA) moratorium, applies even to items that qualify as antiques.
Why is the Service allowing limited imports for non-commercial purposes to continue, but restricting the commercial importation of antiques made from African elephant ivory?
The United States is a market for objects made from African elephant ivory, which drives increasing poaching of wild elephants. The Service has determined that it must take every administrative and regulatory action to cut off import of raw and worked elephant ivory where that importation is for commercial purposes. Allowing imports for law enforcement and scientific purposes is in line with the Service’s mission to help conserve African elephants and stop trafficking in African elephant ivory. The other limited exceptions allow movement into the United States of legally possessed African elephant ivory that predates the listing under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) for personal use as part of a household move or inheritance, musical performances, and traveling exhibitions. Each of these types of import must meet specific criteria. And unlike the commercial antiques trade, none of these types of imports has been used by smugglers to “cover” trafficking in newly poached ivory.
How does prohibiting commercial use of antiques and other old ivory help elephant populations in Africa?
Illegal ivory trade is driving a dramatic increase in African elephant poaching, threatening the very existence of this species. It is extremely difficult to differentiate legally acquired ivory, such as ivory imported in the 1970s, from ivory derived from elephant poaching. Our criminal investigations and anti-smuggling efforts have shown clearly that legal ivory trade can serve as a cover for illegal trade. By significantly restricting ivory trade in the United States, it will be more difficult to launder illegal ivory into the market and thus reduce the threat of poaching to imperiled elephant populations.
What are the penalties for violating the ESA?
The maximum penalty for violating the ESA is one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for an individual, $200,000 for an organization. Those who engage in illegal wildlife trade under the ESA may also face prosecution under the Lacey Act's anti-trafficking provisions (maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and fines of $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for an organization).
Is it illegal to create or submit false paperwork to claim that an item qualifies as antique under the ESA antique exception?
african-elephant-walking-down-path
Confiscated Ivory Goods
Credit: Peter Maas CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Yes. The Lacey Act makes it illegal to produce or submit any false record, account, label for, or false identification of wildlife being transported in interstate or international commerce (maximum penalty 5 years in prison and fines of $250,000 for an individual, $500,000 for an organization). Making false statements and using false documents violates 18 U.S.C. 1001 (maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and fines of $250,000 for an individual, $500,000 for an organization).
What is meant by the ESA antiques exception?
The import, export and interstate sale (sale across state lines) of listed species or their parts is prohibited without an ESA permit except for items that qualify as “antique”.
To qualify as antique, the importer, exporter or seller must show that the item meets all of these criteria:
•It is 100 years or older;
•It is composed in whole or in part of an ESA-listed species;
•It has not been repaired or modified with any such species after December 27, 1973; and
•It is being or was imported through an endangered species “antique port.”
Museums and educational institutions
How can worked African elephant ivory be imported as part of a traveling exhibition?
Worked African elephant ivory may be imported as part of a traveling exhibition, such as a museum or art show, provided that the ivory was legally acquired prior to February 26, 1976; the worked elephant ivory has not been transferred from one person to another in the pursuit of financial gain or profit after February 25, 2014; the person or group qualifies for a CITES traveling exhibition certificate; and the item containing elephant ivory is accompanied by a valid CITES traveling exhibition certificate or an equivalent CITES document that meets the requirements of CITES Resolution Conf. 16.8. Raw African elephant ivory cannot be imported as part of a traveling exhibition.
Owners of elephant Ivory
Is ownership and use of personally owned elephant ivory items affected?
Personal possession of legally acquired items containing elephant ivory will remain legal. Worked African elephant ivory imported for personal use as part of a household move or as an inheritance and worked African elephant ivory imported as part of a musical instrument or a traveling exhibition will continue to be allowed provided the worked ivory has not been transferred from one person to another person in pursuit of financial gain or profit after February 25, 2014, and the item is accompanied by a valid CITES document. The import of raw African elephant ivory, other than sport-hunted trophies, is prohibited.
Import and export of Asian elephant ivory is allowed for non-commercial purposes either with an ESA permit or if the specimen qualifies as pre-ESA or as an antique under the ESA.
How can African elephant ivory be imported for personal use?
You may only import worked African elephant ivory for personal use as part of a household move or inheritance or as a musical instrument provided that the ivory was legally acquired before February 26, 1976; the ivory has not been transferred from one person to another person in pursuit of financial gain or profit after February 25, 2014; and the item is accompanied by a valid Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) pre-Convention certificate. Worked elephant ivory can also be imported as part of a sport-hunted trophy, if all other requirements for sport-hunted trophies are met.

2. NEW YORK - New York Times - July 26, 2015. The proposed changes would still
allow Americans to sell ivory across state lines, but only if it meets the strict criteria of the antiques exemption listed in the Endangered Species Act. The act identifies an antique as an item that is 100 years or older, that is partly or entirely composed of a species listed under the act, and that has not been repaired or modified with any such species after Dec. 27, 1973. It also must have been imported through one of 13 specific antique ports within the United States.
Certain manufactured items that contain a small amount of ivory — like musical instruments and ivory-handled guns — survived the cut after some lobbying from the affected industries, but the new rule will also ban interstate sales of so-called sport-hunted trophies and ivory that was imported in the United States as part of a household move or inheritance.

The current law allows for the sale of ivory and ivory products if they were lawfully imported before the date the African elephant was listed in an international convention on endangered species, but only if the seller can provide documents proving that the elephant had died of natural causes or that the ivory had been obtained before the convention took effect. Experts say the new revisions are necessary because it is difficult for the average consumer to distinguish legal ivory from illegal ivory. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/world/africa/obama-administration-targets-trade-in-african-elephant-ivory.html?_r=0

2. NEW YORK - Forbes Magazine - Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Obama Administration Treats Antique Collectors And Dealers As Criminals: New Ivory Rules Put Elephants At Increased Risk
The Obama administration is preparing to treat virtually every antique collector, dealer, and auctioneer in America—and anyone else who happens to own a piece of ivory—as a criminal. In the name of saving elephants, the administration is effectively banning the sale of any object containing any ivory, even if legally acquired decades ago. Doing so will weaken conservation efforts by expanding the ivory black market, diverting enforcement resources away from true contraband ivory, and enriching those engaged in the illegal ivory trade.
In Africa poachers are killing elephants for their tusks. Ill-equipped and under-financed African governments are unable to stop the slaughter. Western industrialized states have responded by pushing sales restrictions. Under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) only ivory from before 1989 can be sold. Official certification is required for international shipment. Special CITES approval is necessary for even governments to market post-1989 ivory.
Unfortunately, ivory prohibition has not protected the animals. By far the greatest demand for new ivory comes from Asia, though some smuggling occurs elsewhere, including the West. However, most ivory in America arrived legally many years ago. A beautiful material easily worked by skilled craftsmen, ivory has provided jewelry, pool cues, piano keys, canes, clocks, toys, musical instruments, card cases, beer steins, balls, seals, fans, gun stocks, chess sets, crosses, netsukes, sculptures, poker chips, figurines, die, handles, and a myriad of other decorative objects. These items have made their way into public museums, private collections, dealer inventories, and auction showrooms across America.
The elephants which provided the ivory for these items are long dead. The owners have acted responsibly and legally, following the rules as they invested hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars in objects d’art. Most collectors and dealers don’t traffic in poached ivory.
Until now the rules were simple and sensible. Ivory imported legally, that is, prior to 1989 or after 1989 with CITES certification that international standards were met, could be sold. Older ivory usually can be identified by coloring, stains, style, wear, quality, subject, and more. Some features can be faked, but most of the older work simply isn’t replicated today.
Moreover, the burden of proof fell on the government, which had to prove that you violated the law. That standard is inconvenient for zealous prosecutors. But that’s the way America normally handles both criminal and civil offenses.
However, last year the administration formed an interagency task force and an Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking. The latter lacked any representative of the thousands of responsible Americans who own legal ivory. Collectors and dealers are numerous, but not well-organized. Existing associations have limited memberships and narrowly focused activities.

The Advisory Council recommended prohibition. In mid-February the administration issued its new plan, which was as close as possible to a total ban without being a total ban. (The new administration policy also applies to rhinoceros.) In practice, virtually every collector, dealer, auctioneer, and other person—who may simply have picked up or inherited some ivory—in America is banned from selling ivory items, even if acquired legally, owned for decades, and worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Indeed, the collective value of that property runs into the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Every flea market, junk shop, estate sale, antique store, auction showroom, and antique show is at risk of raids, confiscations, and prosecutions. And not one additional elephant is likely to survive as a result.

3. SAN FRANCISCO -By ELLEN KNICKMEYER - The Associated Press Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Ivory dealers in San Francisco's Chinatown stood in their shop doors next to windows full of carved ivory tusks and trinkets, unfazed by proposed federal rules that the White House says go as far as possible to ban the U.S. trade of ivory from the world's endangered elephants.
"Wooly mammoth ivory," not elephant ivory, Michael Rasoyli said this week of the carved tusks for sale in the store he manages.
"Cow bone," Virginia Lo, manager of a Chinatown shop next door, said of the half-dozen curved tusks up to 4 ½ feet long that she was selling.
Those claims are a ruse, according to opponents of the global trade in elephant ivory. San Francisco and Los Angeles make up two of the country's top three hubs for ivory sales, and most dealers in the state rely on intentional mislabeling to cover up the illegal sale of recently poached African elephants, wildlife groups and some ivory experts say.
The proposed federal rules would not close the mislabeling loopholes, ivory opponents say, but a bill before state lawmakers would narrow them in California by banning ivory-like material from many animals, advocates say.
The regulations, announced by Obama on Saturday during his state visit to Kenya, would limit most interstate trade in elephant ivory to antiques that the seller can prove are at least a century old, and to items, such as gunstocks with ivory inlay, that include only a small percentage of ivory overall.
In Chinatown, German tourist Heike Dietrich stopped cold at the sight of the tusks — carved into reliefs of elephants and other African wildlife — on display Monday at Rasoyli's store.
"I can't believe it," Dietrich said, leaning in for a closer look. "It's forbidden. Everybody knows the elephants are endangered. They massacre them to get these?"
Surging demand for ivory among China's growing middle class has spurred poaching that has decimated elephant herds in Africa. Tanzania said last month that ivory hunters had killed 60 percent of the country's elephants in just five years. Mozambique reported a 48 percent decline in elephants in the same period.
After China, the United States is the world's largest consumer of ivory, as well as a key conduit for ivory sales internationally, according to wildlife groups.
Typically, poached elephant ivory coming into the U.S. is mixed with legal lookalikes — hippo, mammoth, or plastic ivory facsimiles — and labeled as mammoth, Kenya-based ivory researcher Daniel Stiles wrote last year for the National Resources Defense Council environmental group.
Thawing of Arctic permafrost is bringing an increasing number of tusks of long-dead wooly mammoth to global markets, but Stiles estimated that up to 90 percent of ivory on sale last year in Los Angeles and 80 percent on sale then in San Francisco was illegal elephant ivory.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, asked about the difficulty of discerning ivory of the extinct wooly mammoth from that of illegally killed African elephants, said the agency requires a trained scientist to positively identify the species from which any carved ivory object originated.
Outside the federal rules, some states are taking a hard line to curtail illegal ivory.
New York, which wildlife officials call the country's biggest ivory market, banned the sale of most elephant ivory, mammoth tusks and rhinoceros horns last year.
In California, Democratic Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins authored legislation this year to ban sales of ivory-like material from animals ranging from elephants and wooly mammoths to wart hogs and whales. The bill passed the Assembly and is now before a Senate committee.
The California legislation "closes loopholes that have allowed the illegal sale of ivory to continue," Atkins said in an email Monday. "By closing these gaps in existing law, we can help shut down the California market and save thousands of elephants and rhinos every year."
In Chinatown, store manager Yail Levi pulled from an office desk a document bearing what he said were the stamps and emblem of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He could send it with any ivory purchase to attest to its provenance from wooly mammoths, he said.
"For the last 10 years, we sell only mammoth ivory," Levi said.
He declined to allow The Associated Press to photograph the document. And while the shop had import documents for the carved ivory pieces, he said he could not show them.

4. FAIRFAX, VA -(AmmoLand.com)- On Wednesday, July 15, 2015, Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), along with original cosponsor, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), introduced S. 1769, the “African Elephant Conservation and Legal Ivory Possession Act of 2015.”
This bill would prevent the Obama Administration from banning the U.S. sale and trade of legally owned ivory, as well as ensure that sport-hunted elephant trophies can be imported from countries with sustainable elephant populations.
Recently, the Administration has taken steps to ban the domestic sale and trade of legally owned items that contain ivory under the guise that the ban will stop poaching and end the international illicit trade in ivory. In the U.S., ivory has long been used in gun making, just as it has been used in fine furniture, jewelry, and musical instruments. Ivory is widely used in rifle and shotgun sights and sight inserts, and for ornamental inlays in rifle and shotgun stocks. Custom handguns–such as General George S. Patton’s famous revolvers–are also often fitted with ivory grips. Ivory is also widely used in related accessories used by hunters and fishermen, such as handles on knives, gun cleaning equipment, and tools. While the goal of restricting illegal commerce in wildlife is laudable, restricting trade in these items–all made of ivory from elephants taken long ago–will do nothing to further current anti-poaching efforts, or to reduce the international illicit ivory trade.
In addition, the Administration intends to limit the number of sport-hunted African elephant trophies that an individual can import to two per year. Hunting has, in fact, been hailed as a valuable tool of wildlife conservation in Africa because it contributes hundreds of thousands of dollars to the economic well-being of local communities, as well as provides resources to combat poaching. Limiting legally-taken trophies from sustainable populations is an ill-advised and scientifically unsupportable restriction.
S. 1769 would prevent the Administration from banning the sale and trade of legally-owned ivory in the U.S., as well as ensure that sport-hunted elephant trophies can be imported from countries with sustainable elephant populations. The NRA fully supports S. 1769 and appreciates Senator Daines’s and Senator Alexander’s leadership on this important issue.
?Representative Don Young (R-AK) introduced H.R. 697, the House companion bill to S. 1769.
?Please Contact Your U.S. Senators and ask them to cosponsor and support S. 1769.
You can contact your U.S. Senators about this important legislation by using our “Write Your Lawmakers” tool or by phone at (202) 225-3121.
About the NRA-ILA
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
For more information, please visit: www.nra.org. Be sure to follow the NRA on Facebook at NRA on Facebook and Twitter @NRA.
Read more: http://www.ammoland.com/2015/07/please-contact-your-u-s-senators-and-ask-them-to-cosponsor-and-support-s-1769/#ixzz3hD988cOz
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5. WASHINGTON DC Cato Institute - The Administration’s New Ivory Ban: I’m from the Government and I’m Here to Kill Elephants and Treat Americans as Criminals
By Doug Bandow
This article appeared on Forbes on March 17, 2014.
On Thursday the Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking is meeting near the nation’s capital to plot the administration’s impending ban on ivory sales. The panel is charged with saving endangered animals, but its proposals would accelerate the slaughter of African elephants.
Moreover, this obscure committee would turn millions of law-abiding Americans into criminals. The Council also would destroy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property legally acquired by everyone from antique dealers and restorers to tourists and retirees.
"Counter-productive and unfair penalties cannot be justified because government officials want to take a short-cut.”
Elephants are magnificent creatures—intelligent, social, and expressive. But their tusks have been called white gold, encouraging widespread and well-organized poaching.
Unfortunately, elephants have few effective defenders. The animals destroy everything before them, stripping trees of foliage and bark, trampling crops underfoot, and killing farmers and villagers who get in the way. Thus, many local people view poachers as friends.

African governments have limited means while confronting other serious problems, including pervasive poverty, ethnic division, and violent conflict. Agencies often are ineffective and incompetent; officials often are disinterested and corrupt.
International activists, groups, and governments are better at hectoring African states than in developing new, more effective conservation strategies. In fact, Western elites sometimes appear more interested in feeling virtuous than in deterring poaching.
For instance, in 1989 the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) outlawed the sale of new ivory. Unfortunately, the ban increased the price of ivory, which remains in high demand. Carving has essentially died out in the West, but sales are strong in ever-more prosperous Asia; China alone accounts for 70 percent of tusks from poached elephants.

Thousands of elephants are still killed annually. Daniel Stiles of the IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group explained: “The inconvenient truth is that the CITES ivory trade ban and [subsequent CITES] votes to cut off legal raw ivory supplies are the real causes of the recent elephant holocaust.”
Yet the U.S. and other nations recently made a great show of destroying ivory stockpiles, which could have been sold to dampen prices and provide revenues for conservation. Far worse, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans what it calls “a nearly complete ban on commercial elephant ivory” trade.
Talented craftsmen long used ivory to make items both practical and beautiful. “Ivory has fulfilled a key role in most of the world’s civilizations since the beginning of recorded time,” explained the International Ivory Society.
Among the most beautiful chess sets are carved ivory. Tusks were turned into stunning beer steins. Japanese netsukes exhibit the finest oriental craftsmanship. Stunning statuary was carved out of ivory. There are ivory canes, clocks, buttons, jewelry, poker chips, tools, card cases, and toys. Piano keys once were ivory, which also was used for other musical instruments. Book marks and page turners as well as religious objects, such as crosses, were made out of ivory. Ivory was used for gun stocks, knife handles, and furniture accents, as well as a myriad of other purposes. Today these items—all created, sold, given, and bequeathed legally over decades and centuries—have made their way into private collections and public museums, and are exchanged by flea market amateurs, sophisticated antique dealers, and internationally-known auctioneers across America and the world.
Outlawing this trade makes no sense. In September 2012 USFWS admitted: “we do not believe that there is a significant illegal ivory trade into this country.” Most ivory in America, 95 percent or more, is older and legal.
Obviously, buying and selling objects derived from elephants long dead does not endanger elephants today. Some activists view anything ivory with disdain, but moral vanity is no substitute for practical acumen. One could burn every existing piece of ivory—in fact, Great Britain’s Prince William recently advocated destroying the royal family’s historic ivories—and not one additional elephant would be saved. To the contrary, any such attempt actually would further hike the value of ivory and thereby increase the incentive to kill elephants.
USFWS argues that it is hard to distinguish between new and old ivory—“legal ivory trade can serve as a cover for illegal trade”—so the agency’s answer is to turn most everyone who attempts to sell most any ivory into a criminal. After all, it then “will be more difficult to launder illegal ivory into the market.” In short, if you can’t catch the bad guys, declare everyone to be a bad guy! If you have trouble finding the relatively small amount of illegal new ivory sold today, declare everything ivory to be illegal, increasing the illicit total 20-fold! Then it won’t be hard to find ivory products to seize and traffickers to arrest.
Weirdly, museums would be exempt from the prohibition. But why shouldn’t they lead if banning legal ivory is necessary to save elephants? Moreover, the administration would continue to allow the import of tusks from sport hunting. Items also could be imported as part of household moves, which would turn the tens of thousands of military personnel who rotate every year into potential sources of illicit ivory.
Criminalizing the law-abiding is a tactic of the indolent, not the serious. No doubt, some sellers of new ivory try to make it look old. And the difference between legal carving in the 1970s and illegal in the 1990s may not be obvious. But the vast majority of antique ivory, which is what most collectors desire and acquire, is obviously antique. Differences from modern items include region, style, purpose, subject, character, and quality. Many aspects of age are hard to fake: cracks, patina, wear, stains, and more. Admittedly, enforcing the law requires effort, but that is no reason to treat innocent and guilty alike.
Turning everyone into a criminal would accelerate the slaughter of elephants. Today USFWS says it has trouble stopping the import and sale of a limited amount of poached ivory. So it proposes greatly increasing the amount of illegal contraband and number of illegal traffickers. Agents would have to visit flea markets as well as antique shows, and police online listings as well as auction offerings.
This obviously would dissipate already highly limited enforcement resources. And the government’s incentive would be to fire at the easiest targets—who are not today’s well-organized illicit poachers. The agency says it wouldn’t go after people selling family knick-knacks, but anyone who counted on not being prosecuted for violating the law by agents and prosecutors hoping for an easy boost to their enforcement statistics would be a fool. And who would dare buy the ivory, even if it was offered for sale? Indeed, any collector or dealer with ivories of substantial quality or quantity inevitably would be in the agency’s crosshairs.
Moreover, rather than develop a strategy enlisting collectors and dealers, who have expertise in distinguishing between old and new ivory, to help ferret out illegal poached ivory, USFWS would turn every owner of legal ivory today into an enemy. Under these rules a collector or dealer would be stupid to cooperate with the government.
The de facto ban also would help finance illicit trafficking networks. Americans are unlikely to docilely allow government to steal their property. Many if not most of them would still try to sell property they purchased, inherited, or otherwise acquired legally. Thousands or millions of Americans would attempt to get something back from their investments.
Sales would go underground. Some people would trade online, such as eBay, relying on camouflaged descriptions, amplified by off-line contact. Others would turn to trusted networks of collectors and dealers. Some number would feel no choice but to yield to the dark side and turn to people who know best how to flog illegal ivory objects—those currently dealing in products made of poached ivory. The market for faked documentation, from invoices, receipts, and appraisals to official CITES certificates, would burgeon.
All of this would enrich and empower today’s criminals dealing in poached ivory. The fact the policy is likely to prove ineffective is reason enough for the administration to reverse course.
But criminalizing otherwise legal conduct also would be unfair to the millions or tens of millions of Americans who followed the rules in building businesses and collections involving ivory. Imagine Washington declaring that since it is difficult to distinguish between legitimate diamonds and “blood diamonds” used by warring groups in Africa, diamonds no longer could be sold in America.
Moreover, the planned ivory ban makes nonsensical distinctions and favors those with friends in high places and possessing high-value collections and inventories. The administration already has outlawed all ivory imports, even of recognized antiques (which currently are tightly regulated and require CITES certification). This action reflects pure spite: poachers don’t send their products through global auction houses with international certification and inspection.
The government’s secretive rule-making process caught many people unaware. Tony Blumka, a New York dealer in ivories dating back to medieval times, shipped most of his inventory to Europe for a major show. He told The Magazine Antiques: “I can’t bring them home even though they are thoroughly documented, often with provenance going back centuries.”
Exports of legal ivory would be more highly restricted, limited to antiques, though the rule’s exact parameters are not yet clear. If the administration genuinely believes the U.S. market is a problem, why hinder carefully controlled antique exports? Again, one suspects the principal desire is to punish collectors and dealers, who would have increased difficulty disposing of legally acquired items.
Most dramatically, the administration would ban interstate sale of anything not an antique, meaning 100 years old. Newer, legal items dating before 1989 could be sold only within states. The proposed age distinction between legal ivories is bizarre. Imagine two collectors possessing 90-year-old legal ivory objects. If one lived in Wyoming and the other in California, too bad. Both may be Americans, but it would be illegal for them to trade with one another!
Sellers also would have to prove the age “through documented evidence.” Alas, documentation does not exist for most ivories owned by most people since it has never before been required. Unfortunately, carvers from decades and centuries ago did not provide notarized affidavits and certificates of authenticity. Deceased parents didn’t include original receipts and descriptions with their bequests. Dealers failed to provide expert certifications when making sales.
Will there be any alternative to nonexistent documents? In relation to products made from other endangered species USFWS said traders “must definitively prove” age through scientific testing or “qualified appraisal” determined by the government to be reliable. Even if these looser standards were applied to ivory objects, the cost of testing and appraising would be high, too high for most products devalued by the increasing uncertainties of the ivory marketplace.
Demanding unreasonable and unavailable documentation is to impose a ban in reality. Perhaps USFWS preferred an absolute prohibition but feared legal challenge, since individual collectors and dealers have invested hundreds, thousands, and even millions of dollars in reliance on past policy. By leaving a nominal right to sell the administration may hope to thwart claims of government takings under the Fifth Amendment.
Rather than treat law-abiding Americans as adversaries, the advisory council and USFWS should develop a tougher strategy targeted against the real criminals—those guilty of killing elephants, poaching tusks, and selling illegal objects. Washington should start by working with African governments tasked with protecting elephants. These states should be allowed to sell ivory seized from poachers and collected from elephants which died naturally or were culled to raise revenue to both improve enforcement and reimburse local communities which lose crops and homes to elephants. More broadly a legal ivory market could help infuse value to live elephants and reward those who contribute to their protection.
At home the administration should build on present policy and target those dealing in illicit ivory. Already some states, such as New York, require dealers in ivory to procure licenses. USFWS should make legitimate collectors and dealers allies and train government agents how to distinguish new and old ivory. Any new regulations should not penalize people who acted and invested in good faith based on rules in force for decades.
Counter-productive and unfair penalties cannot be justified because government officials want to take a short-cut. If the administration insists on turning millions of innocent Americans into criminals, they should treat that policy as a declaration of political war.
A ban on ivory sales might appear to be an esoteric issue of interest only to a few people. But it raises fundamental questions: Is the U.S. still governed by the rule of law, does government still respect private property, and can citizens expect law enforcement to treat them with basic fairness? If not, all Americans will have lost something very important. Government prepares to ban legal ivory sales. Will kill elephants and turn millions of Americans into criminals.

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Germany's Answer for Cultural Property Protection - Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 8:52 am

≫ Next: New York State Ivory - Frequently Asked Questions July 2015

≪ Previous: Update Federal Ban on Ivory Summer 2015

There seems to be no limit today to US Government interference in our daily affairs. One could certainly argue that the United Kingdom and France have provided us with valuable guidance in what not to do in immigration. Now The Committee for Cultural Policy Newsletter (which you need to subscribe to) offers a glimpse at Germany's new Cultural Property protection Act. We now not only routinely have complete disregard for personal property rights but we now have countries in effect enforcing the laws of other countries without due process. Historically it has been demonstrated that freedoms not protected and valued are often lost.

German Law: Disaster for Collectors of Antiques and Ancient Art

July 25, 2015. Germany’s proposed Cultural Property Protection Act, heralded by archaeological hardliners at London’s April 14, 2015 Culture in Crisis Conference, now appears even more draconian in effect than previously thought. The draft text of the new German law was shared early on with archaeological insiders but had virtually no input from the collector or art dealer communities. The text of the new law began to be leaked to the press in early July; the 47 page draft law (with 100 pages of comments), has yet to be officially released.*
The law gives Germany’s government the right to prohibit export of any artworks that are deemed cultural treasures (see German Law: Bad for Collectors of Modern Art). Committees in each of Germany’s federated states determine whether export will be allowed. What is less known about the law is that it severely restricts import of ancient and antique works, places the burden of proof of legal ownership on owners and art dealers, requires very extensive documentation for import, export, and sale, and grants access to private homes and collections by government agents with authority to seize art objects “where there is a reasonable suspicion of a criminal offense.” In contrast to the strict rules for importation, repatriation of cultural objects to a foreign country requires only a statement by the claiming country, not proof that an object was illegally removed.
Ursula Kampmann, writing in Coins Weekly, outlines the key provisions of the draft law:
Section 29 of the draft law states that the import of cultural objects is prohibited if the objects are classified or defined by UNESCO Members States or EU states as “national treasures possessing artistic, historic or archaeological value” and if the objects were transferred from the foreign state in contravention of its laws. Ms. Kampmann notes that these provisions essentially make foreign legislation the criteria for German government action. (It is important to remember that art source country legislation often classifies every single artifact as a national treasure and places blanket prohibitions on export.)
Section 33 of the draft law states that, “The import of cultural property is illegal if:

the cultural property has been transferred out of a country in contravention of the state’s legislation on the Protection of Cultural Heritage after December 31, 1992, from another Member State’s [EU State] territory or after April 26, 2007, from a State Party [non-EU State that has ratified the UNESCO Convention] or if
the import is a breach of the legislation of the Federal Republic of Germany.”

The law places the entire burden of proof of an object’s lawful ownership on the importer or owner.
The law assumes recent import into Germany unless proved otherwise. Under Section 51, the law assumes that cultural objects shall be regarded as having been transferred to German Federal Territory after the law came into force if it cannot be shown that the item has been in Germany, on the domestic market or in a third country prior to April 26, 2007. Section 34 grants authorities the right to seize cultural objects where there is a reasonable suspicion of a criminal offense. Section 39 provides that the cost of storage of the object by the government is paid by the person from whom it is seized.
Collectors and art dealers fear that the draft law effectively enables expropriation of private collections by controlling their transfer. The government must be informed of the art’s location at all times and of any changes of ownership. The law overrides “the basic right of inviolability of the home,” giving government agents the right to access private homes to ensure that cultural objects have not been secretly sold. The details of controls will not be available until after passage of the law, according to the draft. The draft authorizes the Culture and Media Commissioner of the German Federal Government to prepare the actual regulations at a later date, to be voted on by the Federal Council.

Art dealers trading in cultural objects must follow very detailed “due diligence” practices. If the value of the cultural heritage is €2,500, (€100 or more for “archaeological heritage” unless the dealer has a record going back 20 years) the dealer must detail and provide the name and the address of the vendor, a description and a photographic image, investigate the provenance of the cultural heritage, research the records of prior import and export, identify restrictions of import and export (presumably from source countries and intermediate transferring countries), obtain a declaration by the consignor or seller that he is authorized to dispose of the goods, and determine whether or not the object is registered in publicly accessible lists and databases. There is no minimum valuation threshhold if the object is of a type listed in the very generalized ICOM Red Lists.
These due diligence requirements would cost more to complete than the value of many antiquities, thereby ending the market in smaller, less valuable items including most coins, glassware, ceramics and minor stone or metal objects.
Section 60.3 describes the procedures for repatriation to a claiming country. These require only a description of the cultural object, a statement that it is considered an object of national cultural heritage by the requesting state, and a statement that the cultural heritage was transferred from its territory illegally. No documentation of the illegal transfer is required. An owner would receive compensation only if he performed the requisite due diligence in acquisition of the object, for example, by demonstrating 20 years of known provenance . Compensation could be given to an owner only if he actually actually performed the due diligence – and would be his purchase price only.
Ms. Kampmann points out that there is no provision for determining whether an earlier, lawful transfer, for example through purchase of an antique or ancient item at a Swiss or French auction, would provide a German owner with protection as a lawful purchaser.
It appears that much of the rationale for the German legislation is founded on spurious claims similar to those raised in the US regarding the need for draconian legislation affecting private and museum ownership as well as trade: the claim that looting of art is a major funding source for terrorism. The preamble to the German draft law also recites the unproven claim that enactment of severe import restrictions on antiquities would not only “combat traffic in illicit artifacts in Germany” but also curb the activities of terrorist organizations said to be “more and more financed by illegal excavations at archaeological sites.”
An international petition to support the right to privately collect antiques, coins, and ancient art is being circulated on the Internet. See: https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/fuer-den-erhalt-des-privaten-sammelns
*This post is largely drawn from Ursula Kampmann’s article, Ministerial draft updating the legislation on the Protection of Cultural Heritage, translated by Annika Backe, which appeared in Coins Weekly on July 16, 2015.
Image: Wikimedia Commons, Bestandteil der Bemalung eines Raumes einer römischen Villa am Fuße des Vesuvs, vermutlich in Boscoreale. Höhe der Figur ca. 23 cm. Landesmuseum Württemberg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harfenspielerin_R%C3%B6misches_Fresko.jpg

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New York State Ivory - Frequently Asked Questions July 2015

August 11, 2015, 8:53 am

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You will note that the New York state ban is even more onerous than the US Govt. ban. Note past blog entries that have covered state to state efforts. Again clearly this ban is an incremental step towards a total ban of all ivory regardless of age or how important it may be as an art object.

Ivory Ban NY State August 2014
IVORY AND RHINOCEROS HORN RESTRICTIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. What does the law require?
• The law prohibits the sale, offer for sale, purchase, trade, barter or distribution of elephant and mammoth ivory articles and rhinoceros horn, with limited exceptions.
• The law authorizes the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to issue licenses or permits to sell, offer for sale, purchase, trade, barter or distribute ivory articles and rhinoceros horn that qualify as exceptions under the law.
• The law increases criminal and civil penalties for the illegal sale of ivory articles and rhinoceros horn.
• The law requires DEC to post information on the DEC website regarding the prohibition on sale and purchase of ivory articles and rhinoceros horn in the state.
2. When does the law go into effect?
The law became effective on August 12, 2014. Any person with a license or permit issued prior to August 12th may continue to sell ivory articles and rhinoceros horn under the terms of that license or permit until it expires.
3. Who will be affected by the law?
The law will affect anyone involved in the sale, offer for sale, purchase, trade, barter or distribution of elephant and mammoth ivory articles and rhinoceros horn, in whole or in part, within New York, including:
• the general public;
• collectors;
• retail stores;
• art and antique dealers;
• auction houses;
• musical instrument manufacturers, technicians and musicians who intend to sell their ivory instruments;
• museums, scientific and educational institutions; and
• legal beneficiaries of a trust or heirs or distributees of an estate inheriting ivory articles or rhinoceros horn.
4. Why are ivory articles and rhinoceros horn being targeted?
Despite being listed as threatened or endangered in the Federal Endangered Species Act since the 1970s, elephant and rhinoceros populations across Africa and Asia are moving towards extinction. These animals are being slaughtered at an alarming rate to meet demand of the ivory and rhinoceros horn trades, much of which are unlicensed and illegal. The Wildlife Conservation Society estimates that 96 elephants are slaughtered in Africa each day and one December 3, 2014
subspecies in particular, the Central African forest elephant, faces extinction in the next decade if the current poaching rate continues.
New York City is the nation’s largest port of entry for illegal wildlife goods and consumer demand for ivory and rhinoceros horn products in New York is especially troubling.
This law addresses the system’s shortcomings by limiting the universe of ivory articles and rhinoceros horn that can be bought and sold in New York.
The law is also intended to deter illegal sales of ivory articles and rhinoceros horn in New York by increasing fines and penalties.
5. What is an ivory article?
An ivory article is any item containing worked or raw ivory from any species of elephant or mammoth.
6. What is the difference between raw and worked ivory?
“Raw ivory” is defined as any elephant or mammoth tusk, including pieces of tusk or polished items, which is unaltered or minimally carved. Any elephant or mammoth tusk that does not meet the definition of “raw ivory” is “worked ivory.”
7. What are the “limited exceptions” to the purchase and sale prohibitions?
Unless the activity is prohibited by Federal law, rule or regulation, DEC may issue licenses or permits authorizing the sale, offer for sale, purchase, trade, barter or distribution of ivory articles and rhinoceros horn provided that the owner or seller proves:
• The ivory article or rhinoceros horn comprises less than 20 percent of an antique that is at least 100 years old;
• The distribution or change in possession is for educational or scientific purposes, or to a museum chartered by the board of regents, or by special charter from the New York State Legislature;
• The distribution is to a legal beneficiary, heir or distributee of an estate; or
• The article is a musical instrument that contains ivory or horn and was manufactured no later than 1975.
8. Do I need a permit to buy or distribute an object that qualifies for one of the exceptions?
Yes, any sale, offer for sale, purchase, trade, barter or distribution that occurs in whole or in part within New York is prohibited without a permit from DEC. DEC will only issue permits consistent with state and federal law. The seller or person initiating the trade, barter or distribution of an ivory article or rhinoceros horn must obtain a DEC-issued permit and provide a copy to the purchaser. The purchaser does not need to secure a separate permit. However, a purchaser taking possession of the article in New York must ensure that a valid permit has been December 3, 2014
procured for the transaction and secure a copy of that permit prior to taking possession of the object. If the seller or person initiating the sale, trade, barter, or distribution is located outside of New York State and does not obtain a permit, then the buyer must obtain a DEC permit prior to the purchase.
9. Do I need a permit to physically display ivory articles or rhinoceros horn while offering them for sale in a retail or wholesale store or auctioning them in New York State?
Yes. A DEC permit must be secured in order to physically display an ivory article or rhinoceros horn for sale in New York State.
10. Do I need a permit to offer ivory articles or rhinoceros horn for sale in or from New York State via advertisement, catalogue or online?
Yes. A DEC permit must be secured for an ivory article or rhinoceros horn offered for sale in New York via advertisement, catalogue or online. Items that are permitted and offered for sale must include a statement indicating whether the item is available for sale or purchase within New York State or only out-of-state.
No one may offer ivory articles or rhinoceros horn for sale in New York State without a DEC permit.
11. Do I need a license or permit to consign my ivory article or rhinoceros horn to a gallery or auctioneer in New York?
No. The consignor of an ivory article or rhinoceros horn is not required to obtain a license or permit to consign the object to a consignee located in New York State. If the consignee offers the object for sale, the consignee must obtain a DEC license or permit.
12.Why does the law prohibit the sale, offer for sale, purchase, trade, barter and distribution of mammoth ivory?
It can be difficult to distinguish mammoth ivory from elephant ivory without specialized training and analysis. In addition, articles fashioned from elephant ivory can be altered to resemble mammoth ivory. Effective enforcement efforts require that elephant ivory and mammoth ivory be treated identically.
13. Does the law apply to all species and subspecies of rhinoceros?
Yes, since it is difficult to discern rhinoceros horn from different species, the prohibition covers all rhinoceros species and subspecies. In New York, the sale of any part of a Sumatran Rhinoceros or Black Rhinoceros, whether raw or manufactured, is prohibited by New York law and remains unlawful.
December 3, 2014
14. In addition to an application, what other information is required to obtain a permit to sell, offer for sale, purchase, trade, barter or distribute an ivory article or rhinoceros horn?
Permits will only be issued where substantive evidence related to the ivory article or rhinoceros horn establishes that the articles may be legally sold, offered for sale, purchased, traded, bartered or distributed. Therefore, documentation establishing that the ivory article or rhinoceros horn qualifies for one of the exceptions will be required with the permit application. In addition to such documentation, all applications for a permit must be accompanied by a photograph of the ivory article or horn and a sworn affidavit from the applicant affirming that the affidavit is based upon personal knowledge as to the age of the article and validity of other required evidence and is given under penalty of perjury.
15. How do I establish the age of my ivory article or rhinoceros horn in order to obtain a permit from DEC under an exception?
Under the New York State law, a permit applicant must furnish historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the age of the article, ivory used in the article, or horn. The following evidence can be used to document provenance, age, and species of an ivory article or rhinoceros horn:
• United States Customs records;
• import declarations and CITES permits;
• verifiable bill of sale or receipt;
• bona fide testing using scientifically approved aging methods by a laboratory or facility accredited to conduct such test;
• photographs or media articles that date the item; or
• documentation that unequivocally establishes provenance, age of the article or horn, date of manufacture, or species.
DEC may issue guidance or regulations to further clarify the types of acceptable evidence.
16. How do I determine whether ivory or horn comprises less than 20% of an antique?
• For antiques whose ivory or rhinoceros horn includes one or more pieces of worked ivory or rhinoceros horn attached to a body made of other material (such as a cane with an ivory handle or tip, buttons or pulls), evidence should be submitted as to the overall three-dimensional volume or weight of the ivory or horn piece(s) in relation to the overall three-dimensional volume or weight of the object.
• For antiques whose ivory or rhinoceros horn consists primarily of thin slices inlaid into the surface, evidence should be submitted as to the surface area or volume of the inlays in relation to the overall surface area or volume of the object.
• A reasonable estimate of volume, weight or surface area is acceptable. Evidence may include pictures, calculations and other data.
December 3, 2014
• For antiques that contain recent, non-original additions to the object, the new parts must be reasonably consistent with the original configuration of the antique as a whole. Non-original additions may not be considered in determining whether the object meets the 20% threshold for antiques to the extent that they reduce the proportion of ivory or horn in the object.
17. Are portrait miniatures less than 20% by volume of ivory?
A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting usually made between the 18th-century and the early 20th-century that used ivory as the medium for the painting. The ivory used in these works was no thicker than a piece of paper. Although the circumference is not standard, the volume of ivory used is approximately the same percentage for every portrait miniature. The percentage of ivory by volume used in the portrait miniature will be presumed less than 20%. However, this presumption may be rebutted by evidence to the contrary on a case-by-case basis.
18. How do I establish that my distribution is for bona fide scientific or educational purposes?
The following specific evidence must be submitted:
• A formal project proposal which specifies: (a) the scientific or educational affiliation or purpose of the project; (b) the data to be collected for scientific purposes; (c) the proposed and justified quantity of ivory or horn necessary for the project; and (d) a description of the ivory, including its age, necessary for the project; and (e) the duration of the project; and
• Resume/CV or other documentation describing the expertise and qualifications of the individual(s) listed on the application.
19. How do I establish that my distribution to a museum is legal for purposes of obtaining a permit?
The following specific evidence must be submitted for distributions to a museum chartered by the board of regents or by special charter from the New York State Legislature:
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing that the age of the article or horn pre-dates the listing of that species as endangered or threatened (1976 for ivory articles and 1970 for horn). Mammoth is presumed to be over 100 years old. Evidence that clearly establishes that the article is mammoth rather than elephant ivory must be submitted.
• Name of the museum receiving the distribution.
Distributions to museums outside of New York State will be treated similar to interstate sales (see 24. below).
20. What does it mean to “distribute” an ivory article or rhinoceros horn?
“Distribute” (or “distribution”) is defined as any transfer or change in possession with an accompanied by a change in legal ownership.
December 3, 2014
21. Do I need a permit to distribute ivory or horn through a will or trust?
Yes. A permit in the form of a registration is required to lawfully distribute an ivory article or horn to a beneficiary of a trust, heir or distributee of an estate. The executor, trustee, beneficiary, heir or distributee is required to file this registration with DEC describing the ivory article or horn, submitting a picture of the item and declaring that possession of the item is lawful under New York State law. This registration does not authorize the beneficiary, heir or distributee to sell, offer for sale, trade, barter or distribute the ivory article or rhinoceros horn after the permitted distribution. A beneficiary, heir or distributee that intends to sell the ivory article or rhinoceros horn acquired from a trust or distributed from an estate must secure a DEC permit if he or she intends to sell the item.
22. How does the New York State law apply to intrastate commercial transactions?
The New York State law bans intrastate sale, offer for sale, purchase, trade, barter or distribution of any ivory article or rhinoceros horn, unless one of the exceptions apply and a DEC permit is issued. Intrastate sales are defined as those conducted wholly within New York State. This includes sales where the seller and purchaser are located in New York State, such as an in-person retail sale at a commercial establishment.
23. What is the interaction between Federal law and New York State law?
Federal law bans commercial imports and exports of ivory and horn with limited exceptions. New York’s law applies a similar commercial ban on sale, purchase, trade, barter or distribution in New York.
24. How does the New York State law apply to interstate sale, offer for sale, purchase, or distribution of an ivory article or rhinoceros horn?
Federal law prohibits the import, export and interstate sale (sale across state lines) of species listed in the Endangered Species Act, or their parts, without a Federal ESA permit. However, Federal law also creates a specific exception for items that qualify as “antique.” Therefore, the New York law, in concert with Federal law, limits the interstate sale, offer for sale, purchase, or distribution of any ivory article or rhinoceros horn to an ivory article or rhinoceros horn that has a Federal ESA Permit or:
• is 100 years or older;
• is composed in whole or in part of an ESA-listed species; and
• has not been repaired or modified with any such species after December 27, 1973.
Interstate sales are defined as any sale, offer for sale, purchase or distribution of an ivory article or rhinoceros horn conducted in part within New York State and in part in another state or foreign country. Interstate transactions include those where legal transfer of the article occurs in another state, or where the purchaser or seller is in another state.
December 3, 2014
Interstate sale, offer for sale, purchase or distribution of an ivory article or rhinoceros horn in or from New York State requires a DEC permit.
25. How does the New York State law treat commercial sales of mammoth ivory in interstate commerce?
Mammoth is an extinct species not regulated under the Federal Endangered Species Act. However, New York has determined that effective enforcement efforts require that elephant ivory and mammoth ivory be treated identically. Therefore, interstate sale, offer for sale, purchase or distribution of mammoth ivory is permissible under similar conditions as elephant ivory.
26.What happens to the permit DEC issued to me before this law was enacted?
Any existing permit authorizing the sale of ivory articles or rhinoceros horn shall remain valid until it expires. Any new permit authorizing the sale of these items must meet the more stringent requirements of the new law. DEC permits issued under the new law will be valid for one year from the date of issuance.
27. What are the new criminal and civil penalties for violating this law?
• Criminal Penalties: For ivory articles, the law establishes a Class D felony penalty for the illegal sale, trade, possession with intent to sell or barter of ivory articles with a value exceeding $25,000.
• Civil Penalties: For both ivory articles and rhinoceros horn, the law increases penalties for violations of the illegal ivory articles and rhinoceros horn law (ECL § 11-0535-a) to not more than the greater of $3,000 or twice the value of the article for a first offense, and not more than the greater of $6,000 or three times the value of the article for a second or subsequent offense.

December 3, 2014
What can I do with my ivory article or rhinoceros horn?
Elephant Ivory
Mammoth Ivory
Rhinoceros Horn
1. Commercial Intrastate Sale, Offer for Sale, Purchase, Trade, Barter or Distribution (buyer and seller within New York)
What can be sold, purchased, etc.?

An article that is at least 100 years old, contains less than 20% elephant ivory, and has not been repaired or modified with any ESA-listed species after December 27, 1973.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the age of the article and any repairs to the article;
• Reasonable estimate of volume, weight or surface area less than 20%; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
What can be sold, purchased, etc.?
An article that is at least 100 years old, contains less than 20% mammoth ivory, and has not been repaired or modified with any mammoth after June 30, 2014.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the age of the article and any repairs to the article;
• Documentation that clearly establishes the article is mammoth ivory;
• Reasonable estimate of volume, weight or surface area less than 20%; and
What can be sold, purchased, etc.?
An item that is at least 100 years old and contains less than 20% rhinoceros horn that is not from Sumatran Rhinoceros or Black Rhinoceros and has not been repaired or modified with any ESA-listed species after December 27, 1973.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Documentation that identifies the species of rhinoceros;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the age of the item and any repairs to the item;
• Reasonable estimate of volume, weight or surface area less than 20%; and
• One or more photographs of the item.
December 3, 2014
• One or more photographs of the article.
2. Commercial Interstate Sale, Purchase, Trade, Barter or Distribution (buyer or seller outside New York State)
What can be sold, purchased, etc.?
An elephant ivory article with a Federal ESA permit; or an elephant ivory article that is at least 100 years old and has not been repaired or modified with any ESA-listed species after December 27, 1973.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• ESA Permit or historical documentation establishing provenance, showing the age of the article, and any repairs to the article; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
What can be sold, purchased, etc.?
A mammoth ivory article that is at least 100 years old, and has not been repaired or modified with any mammoth after June 30, 2014.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the age of the article and any repairs to the article;
• Documentation that clearly establishes the article is mammoth; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
What can be sold, purchased, etc.?
An item comprising rhinoceros horn with a Federal ESA permit; or an item comprising rhinoceros horn that is at least 100 years old and has not been repaired or modified with any ESA-listed species after December 27, 1973.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Documentation that identifies the species of rhinoceros;
• ESA Permit or historical documentation establishing provenance, showing the age of the item, and any repairs to the item; and
• One or more photographs of the item.
3.Distribution for educational or scientific purpose (Intrastate and Interstate)
What can be distributed?
Any elephant ivory article with a bona fide educational or scientific purpose.
What can be distributed?
Any mammoth ivory article with a bona fide educational or scientific purpose.
What can be distributed?
Any item comprising rhinoceros horn with a bona fide educational or scientific purpose.
December 3, 2014
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Formal project proposal;
• Resume/CV; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Formal project proposal;
• Resume/CV; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Documentation that identifies the species of rhinoceros;
• Formal project proposal;
• Resume/CV; and
• One or more photographs of the item.
Distribution to a New York State museum chartered by the Board of Regents or the Legislature
Gift, Sale, Trade or Barter
What can be distributed?
An elephant ivory article that pre-dates listing as an endangered or threatened species.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the age of the ivory pre-dates 1976.
• Name of the museum receiving the distribution; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
What can be distributed?
A mammoth ivory article.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Documentation that clearly establishes the article is mammoth;
• Name of the museum receiving the distribution; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
What can be distributed?
An item comprising rhinoceros horn that pre-dates listing as an endangered or threatened species.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Documentation that identifies the species of horn;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the age of the ivory pre-dates 1970.
• Name of the museum receiving the distribution; and
December 3, 2014
• One or more photographs of the item.
Distribution to an out-of-state museum
Sale, Trade or Barter
What can be distributed?
An elephant ivory article with a Federal ESA permit; or an elephant ivory article that is at least 100 years old and has not been repaired or modified with any ESA-listed species after December 27, 1973.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• ESA Permit or historical documentation establishing provenance, showing the age of the article, and any repairs to the article; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
What can be distributed?
A mammoth ivory article that is at least 100 years old and has not been repaired or modified with any mammoth after June 30, 2014.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the age of the article and any repairs to the article;
• Documentation that clearly establishes the article is mammoth; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
What can be distributed?
An item comprising rhinoceros horn with a Federal ESA permit; or item comprising rhinoceros horn that is at least 100 years old and has not been repaired or modified with any ESA-listed species after December 27, 1973.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Documentation that identifies the species of rhinoceros;
• ESA Permit or historical documentation establishing provenance, showing the age of the item, and any repairs to the item; and
• One or more photographs of the item.
Distribution to an out-of-state museum in the form of a gift*
What can be distributed?
An elephant ivory article that pre-dates listing as an endangered or threatened species.
What can be distributed?
A mammoth ivory article.
What can be distributed?
An item comprising rhinoceros horn that pre-dates listing as an endangered or threatened species.
December 3, 2014
* A gift includes a transfer or change of ownership without compensation.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the age of the ivory pre-dates 1976;
• Name of the museum receiving the distribution; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Documentation that clearly establishes the article is mammoth;
• Name of the museum receiving the distribution; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Documentation that identifies the species of rhinoceros;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the age of the horn pre-dates 1970;
• Name of the museum receiving the distribution; and
• One or more photographs of the item.
Distribution to a legal beneficiary or heir/distributee of an estate
What can be distributed?
An elephant ivory article that pre-dates listing as an endangered or threatened species.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes (Registration)
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Written description of the article;
What can be distributed?
A mammoth ivory article.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes (Registration)
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Written description of the article;
What can be distributed?
An item comprising rhinoceros horn that pre-dates listing as an endangered or threatened species.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes (Registration)
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Written description of the item;
December 3, 2014
• Declaration that the registrant believes the article pre-dates 1976; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
• Declaration that the registrant believes the article to be mammoth; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
• Declaration that the registrant believes the item pre-dates 1970; and
• One or more photographs of the item.
Sale, purchase, trade, barter or distribution of a musical instrument
What can be distributed?
A musical instrument comprising elephant ivory that was manufactured prior to 1975 and is not prohibited by Federal law.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the manufacture of the instrument before 1975; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
What can be distributed?
A musical instrument comprising mammoth ivory that was manufactured prior to 1975.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the manufacture of the instrument before 1975; and
• One or more photographs of the article.
What can be distributed?
A musical instrument comprising rhinoceros horn that was manufactured prior to 1975; is not prohibited by Federal law; and does not contain Sumatran Rhinoceros or Black Rhinoceros.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes
Proof needed to obtain a permit:
• Sworn affidavit;
• Documentation that identifies the species of horn;
• Historical documentation establishing provenance and showing the manufacture of the instrument before 1975; and
• One or more photographs of the item.
Non-commercial movement and personal possession
What is permissible?
ECL §11-0535 permits the non-commercial movement and personal possession of raw
What is permissible?
Possession of articles made from mammoth ivory.
What is permissible?
ECL §11-0535 permits the non-commercial movement and personal December 3, 2014
elephant ivory and articles made from elephant ivory that pre-date 1976.
The enactment of ECL §11-0535A did not affect this type of activity.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes, for raw ivory;
No, for articles made from elephant ivory.
The enactment of ECL §11-0535A did not affect this type of activity.
DEC permit necessary:
No
possession of items comprising rhinoceros horn that pre-date 1970.
The enactment of ECL §11-0535A did not affect this type of activity.
DEC permit necessary:
Yes, for raw rhinoceros horn;
No, for articles made from rhinoceros horn.
December 3, 2014

↧

Auctions 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:04 am

≫ Next: Tribal Art - Summer 2015

≪ Previous: New York State Ivory - Frequently Asked Questions July 2015

AUCTIONS

1.LONDON.- 2015 marks the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta, and a copy of the first engraved version, published by John Pine some 500 years later could sell for £15,000 when it goes under the hammer at Bloomsbury Auctions on Thursday 21st May in the auctioneer’s bi-annual Important Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper sale.
More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78284/Magna-Carta-to-sell-for--pound-15-000-in-800th-anniversary-year#.VXtNTLN0zIU/

2.BERLIN (AFP).- Watercolour paintings and drawings by Adolf Hitler from about 100 years ago are to go up for auction in southern Germany this month, an auction house said Tuesday. Some of the works, which date from 1904 to 1922, are signed A. Hitler, the catalogue of Nuremberg-based Weidler auctioneers showed on its website.The 14 watercolours and drawings are expected to go under the hammer between June 18 and 20 for between 1,000 euros and 45,000 euros ($1,128-50,700) each. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79197/Watercolours-by-Hitler-to-go-under-the-hammer-at-Weidler-auctioneers-in-Germany#.VXtbjrN0zIU

3. SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Bonhams announces it will offer 125 lots of important American Indian Art from the collection of world-renowned horse trainer Mario Luraschi of Paris, France, on September 14 in San Francisco. Luraschi has trained horses and coordinated stunts for television and films for decades, as well as developed numerous live shows. During time he spent filming in the United States, he frequented Santa Fe, New Mexico, and other centers for Native American art, turning his love for the Old West into a remarkable collection from which Bonhams is pleased to offer a selection of the very finest pieces. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79160/Native-American-art-from-the-collection-of-Mario-Luraschi-on-offer-at-Bonhams-in-fall-2015#.VXtefrN0zIU

4. PARIS.- The African and Oceanic Art sale on 24 June at Sotheby’s in Paris will open with the vision of two pairs of husband and wife collectors: that of the great contemporary art gallery owners Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert, and that of Daniel and Carmen Klein, who chose the theme of "Kongo gesture" to assemble an impressive collection of works from this ancient kingdom of Central Africa. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79110/Sotheby-s-Paris-announces-African-and-Oceanic-Art-Sale-to-be-held-on-24-June#.VXtfnbN0zIU

5. LONDON.- On June 10 Sotheby's will present its inaugural London sale in the field of Aboriginal Art. This landmark auction is the first to be held by a major auction house outside of Australia. Showcasing work by indigenous Australians spanning more than 200 years, the sale is focused around a selection of works from the Thomas Vroom Collection, one of Europe’s largest and most important collections of Aboriginal Art. Of the 75 lots on offer, 64 come from the collection of Thomas Vroom, and a further 11 from collections in the UK, USA, Italy and Australia.
http://artdaily.com/news/78707/Sotheby-s-London-to-stage-first-sale-dedicated-to-the-field-of-Aboriginal-artworks-#.VYR4srN0zIU

6. SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- An Okvik Eskimo ivory figure purchased in Alaska in the 1960s from the local hunter who found it in the St. Lawrence Island area highlights Bonhams' Native American Art sale on June 1 in San Francisco. The 6 and 1/4 inch figure is estimated at $40,000-60,000. Ultimately this figure sold for $25,000 including the premium. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78583/Rare-Okvik-Eskimo-figure-leads-June-Native-American-Art-Auction-at-Bonhams-in-San-Francisco#.VYSMUrN0zIU

7. LONDON.- Russian art collectors are turning to works by early 20th century Russian painters, according to the international auction house Bonhams which is offering several examples of work by artists of this period in its forthcoming sale of Russian Art in London on 3 June. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78485/Early-20th-century-Russian-art-is-new-collecting-trend-says-Bonhams#.VYSUjbN0zIU

8. PARIS (AFP).- The government of France has intervened to stop descendants of the country's former royal family from including some heirlooms of historic importance in an auction to take place later this year, Sotheby's said on Wednesday. Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin on Tuesday slapped "national treasure" designations on three objects among some 200 lots that are due to go under the hammer in Paris on September 29, the US-based auction house said, confirming a report by the newspaper Le Figaro. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79096/France-steps-in-to-save-royal-items-from-auction-to-take-place-later-this-year#.VYSZNLN0zIU

9. LONDON.- “Tonight’s result is testament to the truly outstanding quality of the works on offer. To follow our highest totals for Impressionist and Modern art sales in New York, with another sensational sale in London, emphasises the strength of what is undoubtedly a truly global market. Our worldwide network of specialists are working with a broader collector base than ever before, so whether it’s New York, London, or any of our worldwide selling locations, we are seeing incredibly strong results across the board,” said Melanie Clore, Chairman, Sotheby’s Europe & Co-Chairman Worldwide, Impressionist & Modern Art. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79575/Sotheby-s-auction-achieves-the-second-highest-total-for-any-sale-ever-held-in-London#.VZGR8LN0zIU

10. With a final result of €11.1 million, Sotheby's auction of African and Oceanic art achieved the second highest total in this field in France since the market opened. The highest bid went to the Masque-double, which sold for €5,411,000 (estimate €2-3 million), establishing a world record for a Baulé piece and the second highest price for any African mask. A majestic female head, probably of a Queen Mother, from the Casier collection, reached a final price of €855,000, a world record for an Akan work. The Durand-Dessert collection achieved great successes, with an ancient Moba sculpture from Togo selling for €243,000 and a Lega ivory mask from the Democratic Republic of Congo selling for €291,000. More Information: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2015/arts-afrique-oceanie-pf1508.html

11. Christie’s Paris’ African, Oceanic and American Indian art sale achieved €11,565,175 / £8,211,274 / $12,952,996 with strong sell-through rates of 78% by lot, 96% by value and 45% of the lots selling above high presale estimates. Leading the auction was the highly anticipated William Rubin Kota, a work epitomizing the links between African and Modern Art, in the great tradition perfected by the celebrated William Rubin, art historian and Director of Painting and Sculpture at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Collectors paid an honorable tribute to this iconic Kota sculpture, as it reached €5,473,500 / £3,886,185 / $6,130,320, making this work the most valuable work of African art ever to be sold at Christie’s France, 2nd most important price achieved for an African work of art sold in France, and 3rd in the world. More Information: http://www.christies.com/sales/african-and-oceanic-art-paris-june-2015/

12. PARIS.- Africa is at the heart of this Parisian collection which gathers over thirty works of art, constituting the largest session dedicated to Africanism in 20 years in Paris. The sale includes 11 paintings by Jacques Majorelle as well as a collection of works of art by Belgian artists from the same movement. Estimated at 1.8 M€ / 2 M$, the collection will be previewed in Paris in September and in Brussels and Marrakech in late October, before being sold on November 9th 2015. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/80002/Largest-session-dedicated-to-Africanism-in-20-years-in-Paris-to-be-offered-at-Artcurial#.Va7M1BNViko

13. Sotheby's May 15th auction of African, Oceanic & Pre-Columbian Art in New York brought an impressive total of $12,144,375 USD. The sale was led by several extraordinary works, the quality and rarity of which are seen once in a generation at auction: The Luba Male Ancestor Statue by the Master of Warua which sold for $3,610,00 USD; a Monumental head of a Marada Malagan from Tabar Island, which sold for $1,054,000 USD; and an Edo Terracotta Head from Benin Kingdom which sold for $1,930,000 USD. These artworks were intensely pursued by an expanding group of increasingly sophisticated and well-informed collectors, and each set a world record price for its category. This result affirmed Sotheby’s strong leadership in this growing market, and solidified the status of this field as a major collecting category. More Information: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2015/african-oceanic-n09347.html

↧

Tribal Art - Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:05 am

≫ Next: Museums Summer 2015

≪ Previous: Auctions 2015

TRIBAL ART

1. PARIS (AFP).- A Paris auction of masks and statues considered sacred by two Native American tribes went ahead as planned on Wednesday, raising more than 400,000 euros ($450,000), despite fierce opposition from the indigenous groups. The sale of 15 artefacts marked a new defeat for the Hopi and Acoma tribes, which have been trying for two years to put an end to such transactions and demanding the pieces be handed over. The Hopi Tribe Council and Pueblo of Acoma had allied with the US-based Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP) this week to ask France's Board of Auction Sales to suspend the sale conducted by the Druout auction house. They claimed the objects were illegally exported from the United States, and that their sale broke US federal laws. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79215/Native-Americans-fail-to-halt-artefact-auction-in-France#.VXtRhbN0zIU

2. LIVERPOOL.- World Museum in Liverpool invites visitors to uncover the hidden treasures of the ancient Mayas this summer, with the opening of a breathtaking exhibition in the city; the only place to host it in the UK.Opened on 19 June and running until 18 October 2015, Mayas: revelation of an endless time, looks back thousands of years to the Mesoamerican civilisation of the ancient Maya. The free exhibition takes visitors on an illuminating journey to an age of majestic warriors, astronomy and learning, shamanic rituals and human sacrifice. Steve Judd, Director of World Museum said: “It’s a great honour to have Mayas: revelation of an endless time coming to Liverpool. Not only is World Museum the only place you can see the exhibition in the UK, it’s also free entry, making it accessible to all.” More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79478/Majesty-of-the-ancient-Maya--Treasures-of-an-extraordinary-civilisation-on-view-in-Liverpool#.VZGgJrN0zIU

3. NEW YORK The highlight of the next Sotheby’s sale obviously is the cover lot, a Luba statue from D.R. Congo, attributed to the so-called Warua Master (info). Fourteen (!) pages of the catalogue are dedicated to this lot – Myron Kunin’s Senufo statue got 18. Heinrich Schweizer’s catalogue note contains a very interesting paragraph about the “strong adherence to geometric principles” of the Warua Master. More Information:http://brunoclaessens.com/2015/04/african-art-and-the-golden-ratio/#.VZcQMhNViko

4. PARIS On Tuesday, June 23 in Paris, Christie’s auction of African, Oceanic, and American Indian art concluded with a strong sales total of €11,565,175 ($13.2 million). With 78 percent of lots on offer finding buyers, three lots sold above €1 million ($1.1 million) and seven auction records were set. More Information: http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1185753/auction-recap-african-art-at-christies-paris-stars-62-million#sthash.ktEiwreL.dpuf

5. Exotic, extraordinary, unexpected and unusual are just a few of the adjectives used to describe primitive and tribal art. With its roots in Africa, Oceania, Asia and South America, artifacts and objects have offered a window on the history and craftsmanship of primitive cultures for centuries. More Information: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cathy-whitlock/tribal-art-enjoys-its-tim_1_b_4592303.html

6. I've seen a lot of photographers traveling around Africa and shooting local tribes. It's kind of a trend in today's photography. However, none of them talks much about the feelings and emotions they've experienced while being around probably the most isolated people on the planet and capturing their daily routine. More Information: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dainius-runkevicius/what-it-feels-like-to-doc_b_5145274.html

7. WASHINGTON -- Taxes cannot be levied on honoraria to a shaman or spiritual leader for religious services, but could be assessed on per-capita payments from gambling revenues to tribal members, under a proposal for taxing Native Americans by the Internal Revenue Service. More Information: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/native-american-tribe-taxing_n_2300021.html

8. 'Super Indian' Takes On The Romantic Stereotypes Of Native Americans: In 1969, a Minnesota-born artist by the name of Fritz Scholder painted a portrait he dubbed "Indian with Beer Can." The image shows a stark figure in sunglasses and a cowboy hat, sitting with his arms crossed and teeth bared before a can of Coors. Unlike many studio paintings that came before it -- the ones that pictured Native Americans as indomitable or mystic figures detached from Whiter society -- Scholder's portrait was mundane, lower class, uncomfortable. It didn't shy away from the taboo of alcoholism in indigenous communities, nor did it cover up America's distaste for acknowledging poverty and alienation in the Indian Nation. More Information: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/19/super-indian-fritz-scholder_n_7589386.html?utm_hp_ref=arts

9. PARIS.- Launched by a handful of Parisian dealers in 2001, the Parcours des mondes has, in less than fifteen years, succeeded in attracting the most important tribal art dealers from France and the rest of the world, and has re-established Paris as the center of the tribal art world. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/80181/The-world-s-leading-international-tribal-art-show-broadens-it-s-scope-to-include-Asia#.VbABSOhViko

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Museums Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:05 am

≫ Next: Art Forgery Summer 2015

≪ Previous: Tribal Art - Summer 2015

MUSEUMS

1. ZURICH.- Representations of animals are ubiquitous in our culture, from advertising hoardings, to newspapers and television, to hundreds of thousands of images uploaded every day to the internet. Human beings, it seems, are obsessed by the image of the animal. Animals are also consistently subjects of public controversy, whether in relation to animal rights, agro-industrialisation, conservation or genetic engineering. Recently, an expanding field of animal studies has sought to question humankind’s relation to the animal world, challenging long-held humanist assumptions about the animal’s external relation to man. In the writings of Derrida, Deleuze and other post-Heideggerians, the animal has become a potent figure of speculative inquiry, offering radically new conceptions of ethics and agency for all species. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78914/Exhibition-presents-works-by-artists-who-question-humankind-s-relation-to-the-animal-world#.VXtPRLN0zIU

2. DALLAS, TX.- This month the Dallas Museum of Art began construction on the first redesign of the Museum’s Arts of Africa Gallery in nearly twenty years. The galleries will remain closed throughout the summer, with the unveiling of the redesigned gallery and a new installation opening in September 2015, featuring more than 200 works from the Museum’s acclaimed African art collection. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79189/Renovation-of-the-Dallas-Museum-of-Art-s-Arts-of-Africa-Gallery-underway-#.VXtc6rN0zIU

3. In the early days of April 1975, just weeks before the Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, a campaign was launched to evacuate thousands of children from Vietnam and place them with families in the United States and its allies. War had devastated the country, tearing families asunder. But “Operation Babylift” was controversial; not all of the children adopted were orphans. And spotty record keeping has made it difficult or impossible for many adoptees to locate their Vietnamese families. More Information: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-story-behind-the-first-adoption-museum-in-the-u-s

4. Sitting across from the famous work of architectural art, Hundertwasserhaus, one of the most original works in the world, is a small museum that take a look at the other side of the art world where forgers, fakers, and charlatans thrive. More Information: http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/museum-of-art-fakes

5. CAIRO (AFP).- Egyptian curator Medhat Abdallah laughs when reminded of the "curse of Tutankhamun" as he cleans an ancient gilded bed found in the boy king's burial chamber nearly a century ago. The 3,300-year-old relic is one of hundreds of artefacts, never before displayed, from the treasure of King Tutankhamun set to be unveiled in a "mega museum" under construction near the Giza pyramids."We are studying how these objects were made at that time. They will be displayed at the Grand Egyptian Museum once it's ready," Abdallah told AFP, as he inspected the relic in a laboratory at the new museum site. But nearly a decade after the Grand Egyptian Museum -- dubbed "Tutankhamun's new home" -- was conceived, the project is far from complete. More Information:http://artdaily.com/news/79739/Cash-crunch-looms-over-Tutankhamun-s--new-home--under-construction-near-pyramids#.VZbUUBNViko

6. Architecture has been a definitive feature of the Guggenheim since Frank Lloyd Wright constructed the museum’s Fifth Avenue spiral rotunda in 1959. In its myriad domestic and foreign manifestations, the museum has consistently commissioned and championed expressive, sculptural buildings — produced by leading practitioners — that often dominate contemporary discussions about trends in museum design. The significance of the Guggenheim as an institution at the center of debates about architecture’s role in museum identity and experience makes Tuesday morning’s announcement especially curious: Paris firm Moreau Kusunoki Architectes has been selected as the winner of the controversial Guggenheim Helsinki design competition, and its lauded project appears to be the formal antithesis of Guggenheims in New York, Bilbao, and Abu Dhabi. More Information: http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1185096/guggenheim-helsinkis-winning-design-reacts-against#sthash.fhKj8n2L.dpuf

7. “Fire and Forget: On Violence,” the new group show at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, is hard to get into. Not conceptually, that is, or in terms of guest list, but rather, literally. At the entrance to the exhibition, visitors are presented with artist Daniil Galkin’s piece “Tourniquet,” 2015, a maze of spiny metal revolving doors that feel like a series of interlocking teeth. More Information: http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1186644/fire-and-forget-at-the-kw-institute-for-contemporary-art#sthash.7dhBu57m.dpuf

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Art Forgery Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:05 am

≫ Next: Archaeology Summer 2015

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1. THE HAGUE.- The Mauritshuis has one of its most famous Rembrandts back. The (full) attribution of the painting Saul and David to Rembrandt is the exciting conclusion of eight years of research by a large team of international experts under the leadership of the Mauritshuis. The painting has been carefully restored and is the centrepiece of the exhibition Rembrandt? The Case of Saul and David, which is presented in the exhibition hall of the Mauritshuis from 11 June to 13 September 2015. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79182/After-eight-years-of-research--Mauritshuis-attributes--Saul-and-David--painting-to-Rembrandt#.VXtSWrN0zIU

2. NEW YORK It's an iconic image: A sailor kisses a nurse in Times Square after hearing the news that World War II was officially over — just after 7 p.m. on August 14, 1945..Or maybe not.Some skeptics are now challenging that widely accepted story. In their version of events, the famous kiss captured by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt may have occurred more than an hour before the official announcement that the war had ended. More Information: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-vj-day-kiss-timing-astronomy-20150626-story.html#page=1

3. NEW YORK When an English court recently ruled in favor of Sotheby’s in the matter of a purported Caravaggio found by the auction house to be a 17th-century copy, the decision was a seemingly clear-cut vindication of the authentication process. But the legal realities of authentication remain convoluted, with the evidence continuing to demonstrate that authentication carries substantial legal risk. More Information: http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1073843/will-the-sothebys-caravaggio-decision-impact-the-practice-of#sthash.OaDjNy2Q.dpuf

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Archaeology Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:06 am

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≪ Previous: Art Forgery Summer 2015

ARCHAEOLOGY

1. PARIS (AFP).- Scientists said Tuesday they have discovered what appear to be red blood cells and collagen fibres in dinosaur bones, a find that may boost prospects of prising organic remains from a much wider range of fossils.Using molecular microscopy, a British team analysed eight bone fragments from dinosaurs that lived some 75 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period. The fossils were so poorly conserved that it was impossible to tell precisely what type of animal some of them came from, study co-author Sergio Bertazzo from Imperial College London told AFP. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79222/British-scientists-find-what-appear-to-be-red-blood-cells-and-collagen-fibres-in-dinosaur-bones#.VXtRELN0zIU

2. TORONTO.- It is too soon to claim that the common ancestor of dinosaurs had feathers, according to research by scientists at the Natural History Museum, Royal Ontario Museum and Uppsala University. A new study, published in the journal Biology Letters this week, suggests that feathers were less prevalent among dinosaurs than previously believed. Scientists examined the fossil record of dinosaur skin and combined this with an evolutionary tree to assess the probability of feathers appearing in different dinosaur groups. This analysis demonstrated that the majority of non-avian dinosaurs were more likely to have scales than to exhibit signs of ‘feather-like’ structures. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79185/Ontario-Museum-announces-origins-of-feathered-dinosaurs-more-complex-than-first-thought#.VXtcaLN0zIU

3. MIAMI (AFP).- The skull of a horned dinosaur that was previously unknown to scientists and was unearthed in Canada is actually a relative of the Triceratops, researchers this week. The bones were found sticking out of a cliff along the Oldman River in southeastern Alberta about a decade ago. "However, it was not until the specimen was being slowly prepared from the rocks in the laboratory that the full anatomy was uncovered, and the bizarre suite of characters revealed," said Caleb Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79158/Regaliceratops-peterhewsi--Unusual-horned-dinosaur-unearthed-in-Alberta--Canada#.VXtdb7N0zIU

4. SYDNEY (AFP).- Australian scientists said Wednesday they have uncovered a "very rare" 2,000-year-old natural sea pearl -- the first found on the vast island continent -- while excavating a remote coastal Aboriginal site. Archaeologists were working the site on the north Kimberley coast of Western Australia when they came across the unique gem below the surface, said Kat Szabo, an associate professor at the University of Wollongong."Natural pearls are very rare in nature and we certainly -- despite many, many (oyster) shell middens being found in Australia -- we've never found a natural pearl before," Szabo, who specialises in studying shells at archaeological sites, told AFP. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79136/Archaeological-excavations-in-Australia-reveal-a-2-000-year-old-natural-marine-pearl#.VXte7LN0zIU

5. JERUSALEM (AFP).- The oldest complete example of the Ten Commandments has gone on rare display in Jerusalem, part of the Israel Museum's collection of the Dead Sea scrolls, an official said Wednesday.
Written in Hebrew more than 2,000 years ago, it is one of 870 scrolls discovered between 1947 and 1956 in the Qumran caves above the Dead Sea. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78446/World-s-oldest-complete-example-of-10-Commandments-on-rare-display-in-Israel#.VYSU8bN0zIU

6. SAINTE MARIE (AFP).- A team of American explorers on Thursday claimed to have discovered silver treasure from the infamous 17th-century Scottish pirate William Kidd in a shipwreck off the coast of Madagascar. Marine archaeologist Barry Clifford told reporters he had found a 50-kilogramme (110-pound) silver bar in the wreck of Kidd's ship the "Adventure Gallery", close to the small island of Sainte Marie. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78405/Team-of-American-explorers-say-pirate-Captain-Kidd-s-treasure-found-off-Madagascar#.VYSVkLN0zIU

7. MONTREAL (AFP).- Footprints recently discovered on the shores of a small island off the west coast of Canada may be the oldest in North America, researchers say. The find also bolsters a novel theory that the first inhabitants of the continent migrated from Alaska south along the coast by boat rather than inland on foot. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79593/Oldest-North-America-footprints-discovered-by-researchers-on-Canada-west-coast#.VZGROLN0zIU

8. WASHINGTON, DC.- An international team of researchers from the United States and Germany have discovered a key missing link in the evolutionary history of turtles. The new extinct species of reptile, Pappochelys, was unearthed in an area that was an ancient lake in southern Germany about 240 million years ago during the Middle Triassic Period. Its physical traits make it a clear intermediate between two of the earliest known turtles, Eunotosaurus and Odontochelys. Features in the skull of Pappochelys also provide critical evidence that turtles are most closely related to other modern reptiles, such as lizards and snakes. Previously, scientists believed that turtles may have descended from the earliest known reptiles. Additional information is available in the June 24 issue of Nature. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79573/Smithsonian-National-Museum-of-Natural-History-scientist-discovers-key-link-in-turtle-evolution-#.VZGd0LN0zIU

9. TALLINN.- The capital of Estonia is perhaps not the place where one would expect to find the remains of medieval ships, but that is exactly what happened to a group of construction workers in Tallinn this week.While working on the foundations for high-end apartments in a seaside area of the Baltic state's capital, the men noticed something strange in the ground: the remains of at least two ships thought to be from the 14th-17th centuries. "We were digging the ground, when we found some massive wooden pieces, and we decided this might be something interesting," said Ain Kivisaar, spokesman for property developer Metro Capital. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79288/Estonian-construction-workers-dig-up-medieval-ships-while-building-new-residential-area-#.VZWeVLN0zIU

10. SEATTLE In Seattle, archaeologists working under a bridge have found 2,600 or so artifacts from Seattle history—everything from depression-era shoes and dolls to a Chinese coin that was minted in the 1700s, during the Qing Dynasty, KOMO News reports. More Information: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/found-a-chinese-coin-from-the-1700s-buried-in-seattle

11. JERUSALEM (AFP).- Cutting-edge technology has for the first time allowed scholars to read the most ancient Hebrew scroll found since the Dead Sea Scrolls, Israeli and US experts said on Monday. The charred piece of parchment from the sixth century AD was found in the ashes of an ancient synagogue at Ein Gedi, on the shores of the Dead Sea, in 1970 but until now has been impossible to read. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/80158/21st-century-technology-deciphers-Hebrew-scroll-from-about-1-500-years-ago#.Va7ODBNViko

↧

Art World Bits and Pieces

August 11, 2015, 9:06 am

≫ Next: Art Theft and Legal Issues Summer 2015

≪ Previous: Archaeology Summer 2015

1. BEIJING (AFP).- A Chinese newspaper with close links to the Communist Party on Thursday called on famed artist Ai Weiwei to abandon his "previous politics" after the dissident was allowed to stage a rare exhibition in China. China's best known contemporary artist abroad, Ai's outspoken criticism of China's ruling Communist party has caused much of his work to be censored domestically. China has denied Ai a passport since 2011 in an apparent attempt to limit his international influence. But authorities allowed his first solo exhibition to open in Beijing on Saturday. Lacking his usual political commentary, the show -- which reports said local authorities had approved -- consists of a reconstructed 400-year-old wooden ancestral hall. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79243/China-media-calls-on-contemporary-artist-Ai-Weiwei-to-change-politics-after-rare-show#.VXtOfbN0zIU

2. PARIS.- Too much love can be a bad thing: Paris city officials, exasperated with lovers sealing their passion by clipping padlocks all over the city, are set to remove 45 tonnes of the locks next week. Starry-eyed tourists from all over the world flock to the Pont des Arts bridge spanning the Seine River to attach a lock representing their eternal love, and throw the key into the river. But the now-iconic bridge is buckling under the weight of such devotion, and authorities are desperate to stop the craze. Last year police hurriedly ushered tourists off the Pont des Arts when a section of the footbridge collapsed under the weight of the locks covering the 155-metre-(509-foot-)long bridge. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78925/Paris-to-break-hearts-with-removal-of-a-million--love-locks--from-the-Pont-des-Arts-#.VXtO6rN0zIU

3. ORANGE (AFP).- Amelia Earhart took off from southern California in 1937 on her ill-fated around-the-globe flight. A photographer documented the journey's start. But the world was unaware -- until Tuesday -- that a home movie was also made as she prepared to leave. A publisher has released a grainy but extraordinarily well-preserved 3.5-minute film which he says depicts the legendary aviatrix, smiling and self-confident, climbing aboard her plane the day before she departed on a trip that led to her mysterious disappearance over the Pacific six weeks later. More Information:http://artdaily.com/news/79199/Well-preserved-3-5-minute-film-of-Amelia-Earhart-shot-the-day-before-she-departed--surfaces#.VXtb7LN0zIU

4. THE HAGUE (AFP).- In a potentially major reverse for the heirs of Tintin author Herge, a Dutch court has ruled that they do not own all the rights to the famous boy reporter's image. Moulinsart SA, the Belgium-based company that manages the lucrative Tintin business, took a small Dutch fanclub to court in 2012 saying they did not have the right to print extracts in their fanzine. But in court, the lawyer for fanclub the Herge Society produced a document from 1942 in which Herge, whose real name was Georges Remi, signed over the rights to Tintin to his publisher Casterman. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79170/Dutch-court-rules-Herge-heirs-don-t-have-famous-boy-reporter-Tintin-monopoly#.VXtd-7N0zIU

5. BERLIN (AFP).- German police Wednesday recovered two life-sized bronze sculptures of horses worth millions that once stood outside Adolf Hitler's chancellery but vanished in the year the Berlin Wall fell. Police said they had found the long-lost masterpieces, commissioned by the Third Reich, in a warehouse after staging 10 raids in five states targeting eight suspected members, aged 64 to 79, of a ring of illegal art dealers. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78712/German-police-find-Hitler-s-lost-horse-sculptures-that-vanished-the-year-Berlin-Wall-fell#.VYRyrrN0zIU

6. SYDNEY (AFP).- An Australian museum has defended an artist who suggested that teenagers be given marijuana to unlock their potential, describing the proposal as "brave and creative". Leon Ewing will raise the idea of "educational marijuana" at an event focusing on challenges faced by high schools in the southern state of Tasmania next month at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78714/Museum-of-Old-and-New-Art-defends-artist-s-call-for-drugs-to-fuel-teens--creativity#.VYR3hrN0zIU

7. BUENOS AIRES (AFP).- Call it a clinic to restore marred beauty: arms, noses, hands and other appendages missing from sculptures due to vandalism or old age are replaced in a unique Argentine workshop. Patiently waiting their turn, some 100 artworks from parks, gardens and other public spaces are scattered over the grounds of the outdoor facility in Buenos Aires. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78674/Vandalized-statues-from-parks--gardens-and-public-spaces-restored-at-Argentine--hospital--#.VYR-gbN0zIU

8. WASHINGTON (AFP).- The dean of Washington National Cathedral called Thursday for two stained glass windows that depict the controversial Confederate flag to be replaced. Reverend Gary Hall said the windows -- installed in 1953 and depicting Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson -- were no longer appropriate. "It is time to take those windows out," Hall said in a statement, eight days after a young white supremacist murdered nine blacks in an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. "Here, in 2015, we know that celebrating the lives of these two men, and the flag under which they fought, promotes neither healing nor reconciliation, especially for our African-American sisters and brothers." More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79597/Confederate-flag-furor-spreads-to-stained-glass-windows-at-Washington-National-Cathedral#.VZLrd1xViko

9.NEW YORK The news that Richard W. Matt, the convicted murderer who was killed by the police on Friday after a weeks long manhunt, spent most of his time behind bars painting technically skilled portraits of Julia Roberts, President Obama and fellow inmates’ relatives, and bartering them for preferential treatment, has come as a surprise to many. But to those who have spent years teaching art in prisons or making it themselves as inmates, such a trade is a deeply ingrained ritual of incarcerated life. It is practiced informally or as part of established programs by a wide range of prisoners, many of them, like Mr. Matt, with profoundly violent pasts and little art experience. More Information: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/arts/richard-matt-dannemora-escapee-known-for-his-paintings.html?ref=arts

10. NEW YORK Misty Copeland, whose openness about race in ballet helped to make her one of the most famous ballerinas in the United States, was promoted on Tuesday by American Ballet Theater, becoming the first African-American female principal dancer in the company’s 75-year history. More Information: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/arts/dance/misty-copeland-is-promotedtoprincipal-danceratamericanballettheater.htmlhpw&rref=arts&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=wellregion&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

11. MOSCOW (AFP).- Scaffolding surrounds the vast clay sculpture-in-progress inside a warehouse on Moscow's outskirts, yet already the statue of Vladimir the Great has caused an outcry as big as the monument itself. The 24-metre (78-feet) high likeness of the man who brought Christianity to Kievan Rus -- the forerunner of modern Russia and Ukraine -- is set to tower over the capital, the latest potent symbol in a surge of patriotism taking hold in Russia. Prince Vladimir is revered as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church and a hero by others, including the noted sculptor of the work, Salavat Shcherbakov. But not all Moscow agrees. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79263/Giant-statue-of-Orthodox-prince-by-sculptor-Salavat-Shcherbakov-stirs-controversy-in-Moscow#.VZMeAlxViko

12. ATHENS (AFP).- Strapped for cash in crisis-hit Greece but desperate to visit the Acropolis? Tourists faced with empty ATMs need not despair, visitors to the ancient site can now pay by card for the first time. People have long been asking to be able to use debit or credit cards to purchase the 12 euro ($13.5) entrance tickets to Athens's hill-top citadel, the culture ministry said Monday, insisting that families wanting to admire the Parthenon up close would not be penalised for running short on cash. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79650/Greek-cash-crisis-prompts-Acropolis-to-accept-visitors--credit-cards-for-the-first-time#.VZWdXLN0zIU

13. NEW YORK Artists (and Others) Talk About Art and Destruction."Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction."― Pablo Picasso More Information:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seed/artists-and-others-talk-a_b_7707948.html

14. NEW YORK In honor of Independence Day, we at HuffPost Arts & Culture are exploring all the many artistic interpretations of the grand ol' flag. From the thought-provoking work of Barbara Kruger to the unabashedly crafty wit of Olek, these artists have taken America's iconic bit of design to new heights. Behold, the many ways artists have interpreted the stars and stripes. More Information: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/02/american-flag-art_n_7683910.html?utm_hp_ref=arts

15. NEW YORK (AFP).- First day sales for Harper Lee's novel "Go Set a Watchman" made history for adult fiction at America's largest retail bookseller, the company announced on Wednesday. Barnes and Noble said the previous record was held by Dan Brown for his 2009 bestseller "The Lost Symbol," which is to be made into a film expected to star Tom Hanks. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/80024/On-its-first-day--Harper-Lee-novel--Go-Set-a-Watchman--makes-United-States-bookstore-history#.VafvcRNViko

16. CAIRO (AFP).- Egyptian-born film legend Omar Sharif, who died Friday aged 83, captivated audiences worldwide for more than half a century, but will forever be remembered as the eponymous "Doctor Zhivago". Known for his debonair style, raffish good looks and often mischievous joie de vivre, Sharif, who also gained worldwide fame as a bridge player, had Alzheimer's disease. He died in Cairo of a heart attack, his agent Steve Kenis said in London. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79911/Egyptian-born-film-legend-Omar-Sharif--the-eternal--Doctor-Zhivago---dies-at-age-83#.VafythNVikp

17. NEW YORK The New York Times has a late story trying to situate Bert Kreuk’s legal victory over the artist Danh Vo within the context of last year’s frenzied panic over art flippers. And though the Times itself commissioned a study that showed there was no more art flipping today—given the relative size of the art market—than there has been in previous periods, this story suggests otherwise. Nevermind that the last two cycles of sales in New York and London showed little evidence of demand in the day sales for the very artists the story mentions. More Information: http://www.artmarketmonitor.com/2015/07/14/the-nytimes-cant-recognize-regulation-in-the-art-market/

18. ATLANTA The famous outdoor relief sculpture depicting Confederate leaders on Stone Mountain in Georgia has come under attack from the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP. The chapter's leader is calling for the removal of the Confederate Memorial Carving that depicts Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. More Information: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-stone-mountain-georgia-naacp-20150714-story.html

19. NEW YORK Outsider art is a hairy term. Outside of what exactly? According to whom? In 1994, in a review of the Outsider Art Fair, Roberta Smith valiantly attempted to define the expression, stipulating outsider art to be "a somewhat vague, catchall term for self-taught artists of any kind." More Information: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-the-self-taught-genius-went-from-the-norm-to-the-outlier_55aeccd9e4b07af29d56bcff?utm_hp_ref=arts

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Art Theft and Legal Issues Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:06 am

≫ Next: Repatriation - Summer 2015

≪ Previous: Art World Bits and Pieces

1. OTTAWA (AFP).- Canada's public broadcaster has fired its top politics reporter Evan Solomon after discovering he earned hefty commissions on art sales to wealthy Canadians he interviewed. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in a statement late Tuesday cited a conflict of interest and ethics policy, as well as a breach of journalistic standards and practises for the dismissal. It comes after the daily Toronto Star reported that Solomon had brokered the sale of paintings belonging to art collector Bruce Bailey to BlackBerry founder Jim Balsillie and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79217/Canada-star-politics-journalist-Evan-Solomon-fired-over-alleged-secret-art-deals#.VXtQsLN0zIU

2. KATHMANDU (AFP).- Surrounded by ochre rubble, Pannakaji beds down on a mattress wedged between Buddha statues at Kathmandu's "Monkey Temple", hoping to deter looters from the quake-ravaged site where his ancestors have served as priests for 1,600 years. The hilltop Swayambunath Temple complex, one of Nepal's oldest and most sacred religious monuments, was partly reduced to debris by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on April 25. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78332/Nepal-quake-ravaged-Swayambunath-Temple-complex-faces-threat-from-looters-#.VXtjIbN0zIU

3. DAMASCUS (AFP).- Islamic State group fighters overran most of the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Wednesday, in a blow to efforts to repel the advancing jihadists after the fall of Iraq's Ramadi.The jihadists, notorious for demolishing archaeological treasures since declaring a "caliphate" last year straddling Iraq and Syria, appeared to have fought their way into Palmyra on foot after breaking through in the city's north. It was unclear if they had reached Palmyra's UNESCO-listed heritage site, including ancient temples and colonnaded streets, and its adjacent museum housing priceless artefacts, located in the city's southwest. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78713/IS-overruns-most-of-Syria-s-ancient-Palmyra--Unclear-if-they-reached-UNESCO-listed-heritage-site#.VYR2tLN0zIU

4. PARIS (AFP).- A French art dealer has been taken into custody after Picasso's step-daughter accused him of stealing some of the artist's works, a judicial source said Wednesday. Catherine Hutin-Blay, the daughter of Pablo Picasso's second wife Jacqueline Roque, filed a complaint against art dealer Olivier Thomas in March after noticing some of her paintings were on the market, the source said, confirming a report in British daily The Telegraph. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78545/Paris-probes-French-art-dealer-for-theft-of-painting-from-Pablo-

5. ISTANBUL (AFP).- A prominent Turkish sculptor risks over four years in prison on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after being locked in a dispute with the Turkish strongman over one of his works. In March, a court found Erdogan guilty of insulting Mehmet Aksoy for calling the artist's "Monument of Humanity" -- created to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia -- a "monstrosity". The Ankara court ordered Erdogan to pay Aksoy 10,000 Turkish Liras ($ 3,750) in damages for insulting the renowned sculptor. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79535/Turkish-sculptor-Mehmet-Aksoy-faces-jail-for--insulting--President-Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan#.VZGfALN0zIU

6. VALENCIA.- A report by the Generalitat, made known yesterday, points out dozens of irregularities, incidents and weaknesses during a five year period (2009-2013) of Consuelo Ciscar’s 10 year leadership of Institut Valencià d’Art Modern. Her husband, Rafael Blasco, from the ruling Popular Party (PP), last year was sentenced to eight years in prison for appropriating government funds. Sculptures that were paid but not received, artworks paid 15 times their market value; travel expenses without previous authorization by the presidency and with personnel whom don’t work formally in IVAM; contracts executed without bidding, and a lower average of museum visits than the ones Ciscar would represent verbally. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79270/Report-points-out-irregularities-during-Valencian-Institute-of-Modern-Art-Director-Consuelo-Ciscar-s-tenure#.VZWeubN0zIU

7. DETROIT - Detroit police have issued a criminal arrest warrant to Shepard Fairey, the street artist of “OBEY” and “HOPE” fame, for two counts of malicious destruction of property — that is, for gracing a few unsolicited walls with his work. The week prior, Fairey had been invited to the city on commission by businessman Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services to paint 18 stories of an office building in his largest-scale mural yet. But in his spare time during this nine-day mini-residency, he seems to have engaged in some extracurricular projects, reportedly causing around $9,000 in damages. And thus, as ABC on-air reporter Ronnie Dahl put it, “The next time he comes to Motor City, the Detroit police will be waiting… with handcuffs.” More Information: http://blogs.artinfo.com/artintheair/2015/06/25/detroit-police-issue-arrest-warrant-for-shepard-fairey/

8. BEIRUT (AFP).- Islamic State group jihadists have destroyed a famous statue of a lion outside the museum in the Syrian city of Palmyra, the country's antiquities director said Thursday. Maamoun Abdelkarim said the statue, known as the Lion of Al-Lat, was an irreplacable piece and was apparently destroyed last week. "IS members on Saturday destroyed the Lion of al-Lat, which is a unique piece that is three metres (10 feet) tall and weight 15 tonnes," Abdelkarim told AFP. "It's the most serious crime they have committed against Palmyra's heritage," he said. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79736/Islamic-State-destroys-famous-statue-of-a-lion-outside-Syria-s-Palmyra-museum#.VZbU3RNViko

9. HAVANA The irony of the 12th Habana Biennial lies in the fact that although it drew locals closer to art, it did so in a rather literal way. I am saying this because some people ends up 'vandalising' the artworks during the time of the exhibition using them as sources for building materials such as plastic and wooden panels. This raises a series of questions whether conceptual art can be exhibited on the streets in societies where most of the people do not have their basic needs satisfied. More Information: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rodrigo-canete/locals-vandalise-conceptu_b_7702712.html?utm_hp_ref=arts&ir=Arts

10. LONDON.- A version of Auguste Rodin’s ‘Young Girl with Serpent’ stolen 24 years ago has been recovered in New York. In 1991, thieves stole artwork valued at over $1 million USD in a series of raids on a private residence in Beverly Hills whilst the owners were out of town. Among a number of high-value works of fine art stolen during the robberies was an edition of ‘Young Girl with Serpent’ by esteemed French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79883/Rodin-sculpture-stolen-in--1-million-Beverly-Hills-home-invasion-recovered-after-24-years#.VagCvRNViko

11. BERLIN (AFP).- Grave robbers have stolen from a crypt the head of German expressionist cinema great Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, director of the silent-film vampire classic "Nosferatu", reports said Wednesday. Police did not rule out an occultist motive after finding candle wax in the family crypt in Stahnsdorf southwest of Berlin and were investigating the case on charges of theft and disturbing the peace of the dead. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/80043/Grave-robbers-steal-head-of-German--Nosferatu--director#.Vafv8BNViko

12.ANTANANARIVO MADAGASCAR (AFP).- The producer leading a television documentary team that says it has found 17th-century pirate William Kidd's sunken ship fought back on Wednesday against a UNESCO report dismissing their claims. Sam Brown, who is making a film with marine archaeologist Barry Clifford, called UNESCO's report a "disgrace" and said the UN body was motivated by its opposition to privately-funded research. "UNESCO will attempt to discredit Barry Clifford by whatever means they can," Brown said in an email to AFP. "They have exhibited a frankly shocking lack of transparency and impartiality throughout. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/80044/UNESCO-throws-cold-water-over-pirate-William-Kidd-sunken-treasure-discovery#.Vafu4BNViko

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Repatriation - Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:07 am

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1. LOS ANGELES, CA.- The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has ruled in favor of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation and the Kingdom of Spain in an artwork dispute that has spanned a decade. In its June 4th Order granting the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation's motion for summary judgment‎, the U.S. District Court confirmed that the Foundation is the rightful owner of the oil painting by Camille Pissarro, Rue Saint-Honore, après-midi, effet de pluie (1897). More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79236/Spanish-museum-wins-ten-year-legal-dispute-over-ownership-of-Pissarro-painting#.VXtNgrN0zIU

2. BERLIN (AFP).- More than two years after masterpieces looted by the Nazi regime were discovered in a Munich apartment, the first artwork was returned to the heirs of its original owner Friday. The 1921 painting Seated Woman, also known as Woman with a Fan, originally belonged to Paul Rosenberg, but was looted as he fled from Germany to France in the 40s. It was discovered in 2012 among a trove of stashed artworks in the Munich flat of reclusive collector Cornelius Gurlitt. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/78599/Henri-Matisse-painting-looted-by-Nazis-and-hidden-by-Cornelius-Gurlitt-returned-to-heirs#.VYSLrLN0zIU

3. BAGHDAD (AFP).- The United States returned Wednesday hundreds of Iraqi artefacts its special forces recovered during a raid in Syria against a man described as the Islamic State group's top financier. Some of the pieces were displayed at the Iraqi national museum during a repatriation ceremony attended by Antiquities Minister Adel Shirshab and US Ambassador Stuart Jones. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/80041/United-States-returns-Iraqi-artefacts-recovered-in-Islamic-State-group-s-top-financier-raid#.VafuLBNViko

4. JERUSALEM (AFP).- An Israeli court has awarded a rare collection of Franz Kafka's manuscripts to the country's national library, ending a long legal battle worthy of one of the Prague-born writer's complex stories. The judgement, published Wednesday, ordered Tel Aviv resident Eva Hoffe to hand all the papers in her possession to the National Library of Israel. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/79754/Prague-born-writer-Franz-Kafka-papers-belong-to-Israel-national-library--Israeli-court#.VafyBxNViko

5. LOS ANGELES It’s becoming more likely that a jury will decide whether the Norton Simon Museum's "Adam" and "Eve" can stay where they are despite having been looted by the Nazis during World War II.U.S. District Judge John Walter has tentatively set March 29, 2016, as the opening day for a trial in a case that's already gone on for eight years. Marei Von Saher, who lives in Connecticut, sued in 2007 for the return of “Adam” and “Eve” as stolen property the invading Nazis had seized from her family in 1940. More Information: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-adam-and-eve-nazi-looted-art-norton-simon-20150710-story.html

6. NEW YORK Congolese art collector and businessman Sindika Dokolo has launched a worldwide campaign to return to the African continent African art that currently resides in Western Institution and auction houses. More Information: https://news.artnet.com/people/sindika-dokolo-repatriate-african-art-315999

7. NEW YORK -July 1, 2015 8:04 p.m. ET A stolen bronze Indian religious relic worth an estimated $1 million was recovered Wednesday by federal customs agents as part of a continuing investigation into a former New York-based art dealer.The dealer, Subhash Kapoor, is now awaiting trial in India for allegedly looting artifacts worth tens of millions of dollars.
Mr. Kapoor operated a now-defunct gallery on the Upper East Side called Art of the Past. Prosecutors allege that between 1995 and 2012 he illegally imported and sold stolen antiquities from India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, often using forged documents to pass the items off as legitimate.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations unit and the Manhattan district attorney’s office have together recovered more than 2,500 artifacts worth more than $100 million from the gallery and storage facilities in and around New York City.
Kenneth J. Kaplan, a lawyer in New York representing Mr. Kapoor, declined to comment Wednesday, but said his client had asserted his innocence both to him and to his counsel in India. Mr. Kapoor has not yet entered a plea in India, according to a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

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U.S. Govt Ivory Ban July 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:07 am

≫ Next: Igavel ArtTrak Auctions Summer 2015

≪ Previous: Repatriation - Summer 2015

Fish and Wildlife has requested comments on the latest changes that have now been proposed after Directors Order 210 (see blog for background). Make no mistake this is just one more step in the government passing a complete ban on all commercial transactions involving any ivory. Many observers believe that the primary objective of the current administration and the environmentalists is the ban the ownership of all ivory. In this issue see the New York state ivory ban.

My colleague Lark Mason has provided responses below to both Congressional and Senate representatives in support of new legislation to counter the Adminstration's efforts in this area

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants: African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) Rule; Revision
July 29, 2015
Excerpts
We propose to allow sale and offer for sale of ivory in interstate or foreign commerce along with delivery, receipt, carrying, transport, or shipment of ivory in interstate or foreign commerce in the course of a commercial activity without a threatened species permit for manufactured items containing de minimis amounts of ivory, provided they meet the following criteria:
• For items located in the United States, the ivory was imported into the United States prior to January 18, 1990 (the date the African elephant was listed in CITES Appendix I) or was imported into the United States under a CITES pre-Convention certificate with no limitation on its commercial use;
• For items located outside the United States, the ivory is pre-Convention (removed from the wild prior to February 26, 1976 (the date the African elephant was first listed under CITES));
• The ivory is a fixed component or components of a larger manufactured item and is not, in its current form, the primary source of value of the item;
• The manufactured item is not made wholly or primarily of ivory;
• The total weight of the ivory component or components is less than 200 grams;
• The ivory is not raw; and
• The item was manufactured before the effective date of the final rule for this action.
We have intentionally crafted this exception to allow commercial activity in a very narrow class of items. While we have given careful consideration to the types of items containing African elephant ivory for which we could allow continued commercialization in interstate and foreign commerce (because we do not believe the trade is contributing to the poaching of elephants and we believe the risk of illegal trade is low)

Under all three of these exceptions, the importer or exporter would need to show that the African elephant ivory in the item was legally acquired and removed from the wild prior to February 26, 1976 (the date the African elephant was first listed under CITES). This does not necessarily mean that the current owner of an item containing ivory, a musical instrument, for example, acquired the instrument or the ivory in the instrument prior to February 1976. It means that there is sufficient information to show that the ivory was harvested (taken from the wild) prior to February 26, 1976, even though the instrument may not have been manufactured until after that date. It also means that there is sufficient information to show that the ivory was harvested in compliance with all applicable laws of the range country and that any subsequent import and export of the ivory and the instrument containing the ivory was legal under CITES and other applicable laws (understanding that the instrument may have changed hands many times before being acquired by the current owner).
(3) Interstate and foreign commerce of ivory. Except for antiques and certain manufactured items containing de minimis quantities of ivory, sale or offer for sale of ivory in interstate or foreign commerce and delivery, receipt, carrying, transport, or shipment of ivory in interstate or foreign commerce in the course of a commercial activity is prohibited. Except as provided in paragraphs

(e)(5)(iii) and (e)(6) through (8) of this section, manufactured items containing de minimis quantities of ivory may be sold or offered for sale in interstate or foreign commerce and delivered, received, carried, transported, or shipped in interstate or foreign commerce in the course of a commercial activity without a threatened species permit issued under § 17.32, provided they meet all of the following criteria:
(i) If the item is located within the United States, the ivory was imported into the United States prior to January 18, 1990, or was imported into the United States under a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) pre-Convention certificate with no limitation on its commercial use;
(ii) If the item is located outside the United States, the ivory was removed from the wild prior to February 26, 1976;
(iii) The ivory is a fixed component or components of a larger manufactured item and is not in its current form the primary source of the value of the item;
(iv) The ivory is not raw;
(v) The manufactured item is not made wholly or primarily of ivory;
(vi) The total weight of the ivory component or components is less than 200 grams; and
(vii) The item was manufactured before [EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE FINAL RULE].

(9) Antique ivory. Antiques (as defined in paragraph (e)(1) of this section) are not subject to the provisions of this rule. Antiques containing or consisting of ivory may therefore be imported into or exported from the United States without a threatened species permit issued under § 17.32, provided the requirements of 50 CFR parts 13, 14, and 23 have been met. Also, the provisions and prohibitions under the African Elephant Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 4201 et. seq.) apply, regardless of the age of the item. Antiques that consist of or contain raw or worked ivory may similarly be sold or offered for sale in interstate or foreign commerce and delivered, received, carried, transported, or shipped in interstate or foreign commerce in the course of a commercial activity without a threatened species permit issued under § 17.32.
(e) African elephant (Loxodonta africana). This paragraph (e) applies to any specimen of the species Loxodonta africana whether live or dead, including any part or product thereof. Except as provided in paragraphs (e)(2) through (9) of this section, all of the prohibitions and exceptions in §§ 17.31 and 17.32 apply to the African elephant. Persons seeking to benefit from the exceptions provided in this paragraph (e) must demonstrate that they meet the criteria to qualify for the exceptions.
(1) Definitions. In this paragraph (e), antique means any item that meets all four criteria under section 10(h) of the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1539(h)). Ivory means any African elephant tusk and any piece of an African elephant tusk. Raw ivory means any African elephant tusk, and any piece thereof, the surface of which, polished or unpolished, is unaltered or minimally carved. Worked ivory means any African elephant tusk, and any piece thereof, that is not raw ivory.

§14.12 Designated ports.
The following ports of entry are designated for the importation and exportation of wildlife and wildlife products and are referred to hereafter as “designated ports”:
(a) Anchorage, Alaska.
(b) Atlanta, Georgia.
(c) Baltimore, Maryland.
(d) Boston, Massachusetts.
(e) Chicago, Illinois.
(f) Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.
(g) Honolulu, Hawaii.
(h) Houston, Texas.
(i) Los Angeles, California.
(j) Louisville, Kentucky.
(k) Memphis, Tennessee.
(l) Miami, Florida.
(m) New Orleans, Louisiana.
(n) New York, New York.
(o) Portland, Oregon.
(p) San Francisco, California.
(q) Seattle, Washington.

End.

Dear Friends,
You are probably aware of the changes by the USFWS to the Endangered Species Act but perhaps unaware that there are Senate and House bills which are pending that could dramatically improve the situation. We encourage everyone to distribute the below message to your clients and friends. In addition, the USFWS is proposing even more draconian restrictions. For now, we need to gather support for this effort among our elected representatives. The more calls and letters and emails sent in, the better. Please cut and paste as you think appropriate. The PDF attachment contains form letters that can be emailed or sent by post as well as a recap of the situation and a direct link to the Congressional offices.
Lark Mason

RE: Save the Elephants and Protect the Arts
The very stringent new policies recently imposed by The US Fish and Wildlife Service and new legislation in New York and other states have made it impossible and potentially criminal to import, export, sell and even possess any ivory regardless of age or artistic value.
Orchestras visiting the US from overseas have had musical instruments confiscated by US Customs officers. Exhibitors at antique shows have had antique ivories confiscated. A bill proposed in the New York State Senate calling for the possession of ivory to be declared to be a criminal act was narrowly defeated last month.

The very important and worthy goal of saving the elephants has led to drastic actions which imperil the arts. Collectors, curators and dealers who always avoid modern and illegal ivory of any kind, but appreciate the arts of the past which may include ivory, now are being deprived of their rights and even turned into criminals by these new laws and regulations.
Now there is an opportunity for us to simultaneously save the arts and save the elephants, but we must act quickly.
Two steps are needed:
1) Write to your congressional representatives.
2) Circulate the attached notice to your mailing list with a cover note urging all your friends to write to their congressional representatives.
Please do not delay – act now.
Two US Congressional bills with bi-partisan support have recently been introduced to
increase protection of elephants and other endangered species while allowing US citizens
to legally possess and sell antiques, musical instruments, chess sets, furniture and other
works of art containing ivory and similar materials are now advancing in the House and
Senate. Senators Daines (R-MT) and Alexander (R-TN) introduced Senate bill S.1769,
African Elephant Conservation and Legal Ivory Possession Act of 2015. Representative
Don Young (R-AK) has introduced companion legislation to achieve the same goals.
The House bill is designated H.R.697.
This legislation would end the unilateral moratorium on import, export, and sale of
lawfully possessed ivory recently imposed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and
would strengthen measures to stop elephant poaching in Africa and punish countries
engaged in smuggling and illicit trading in ivory. The US regulations governing ivory
import, export, and trade would adhere to the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES) which was ratified by the US in 1975. CITES is strictly
enforced in Europe and has 181 signatories around the world. The proposed legislation
would prevent the US Fish and Wildlife Service from promulgating or enforcing
regulations designed to criminalize possession of both legally imported and antique ivory
in the US and would do away with impossible retroactive documentation requirements
recently imposed by USFWS Director’s Order 210.
These bills would add new funding and new measures to fight against poaching in Africa.
Instead of criminalizing and penalizing innocent US citizens or US visitors for possession
of ivory which was legally obtained, these bills would join international efforts to stop
poaching. These bills would require the US Secretary of the Interior to certify any
country which is a significant destination or transit point for the illegal ivory trade. Those
certified countries would be subject to diplomatic and legal actions to pressure them to
stop violating international law.
PLEASE ACT NOW TO SUPPORT THESE CONGRESSIONAL ACTS:
S.1769 IN THE SENATE AND H.R.697 IN THE HOUSE.
Write to your Congressional Representatives today and ask your colleagues and friends to
do the same. Ask your Congressional Representatives to co-sponsor these bills.
To identify your Congressional Representatives and their addresses, go to:
https://www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup
You may wish to write your own message, stating your own reasons for supporting
legislation to allow US citizens and visitors freedom to transport or use or donate legally
obtained ivory in the US. It is important for your representatives to know how the
Director’s Order has adversely affected you; the way to introduce the impact on you is to
add a sentence about your being a stakeholder. A suggested template for a letter to your
senators is shown below. If you use this template, please personalize the last sentence
(don’t cut and paste the entire letter).
Dear Senator,
I support Senate bill S.1769 - African Elephant Conservation and Legal Ivory Possession
Act of 2015 introduced by Senator Daines and Senator Alexander.
This bill would mandate strong measures to fight poachers in Africa and stop the illicit
trade in ivory and other endangered species. The bill would also protect the rights of US
citizens and institutions to transport, use and sell ivory which is lawfully owned by
ending the unilateral moratorium recently imposed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service
Director’s Order 210.
The United States has long been an active participant in the Convention on the
International Trade in Endangered Species. We should continue to enforce those
international regulations while increasing our active support of the fight against poachers
in Africa and illicit traders anywhere in the world, but US owners of antique and legally
obtained ivory should not be dispossessed or turned into criminals by US government
regulations retroactively imposed.
As a stakeholder in this issue who is a professional violinist / plays a 1930s Steinway
piano / has a collection of ____ (19th century netsuke/ 18th century portrait miniatures /
etc.) I urge you to please lend your support and co-sponsor Senate bill S.1769.
A suggested template for a letter to your representative is shown below. As above, please
personalize the last sentence should you use this example:
Dear Congressman,
I support House bill H.R.697 - African Elephant Conservation and Legal Ivory
Possession Act of 2015 introduced by Representative Don Young.
This bill would mandate strong measures to fight poachers in Africa and stop the illicit
trade in ivory and other endangered species. The bill would also protect the rights of US
citizens and institutions to transport, use, and sell ivory which is lawfully owned by
ending the unilateral moratorium recently imposed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service
Director’s Order 210.
The United States has long been an active participant in the Convention on the
International Trade in Endangered Species. We should continue to enforce those
international regulations while increasing our active support of the fight against poachers
in Africa and illicit traders anywhere in the world, but US owners of antique, and legally
obtained ivory should not be dispossessed or turned into criminals by US government
regulations retroactively imposed.
As a stakeholder in this issue who is a professional violinist / plays a 1930s Steinway
piano / has a collection of ____ (19th century netsuke/ 18th century portrait miniatures /
etc.) I urge you to please lend your support and co-sponsor House bill H.R.697.
Please send this notice to all your friends and colleagues, urging them to take action
immediately by writing to their congressmen and continuing to forward this message. We
have learned that our representatives care what we have to say. They have responded to
our dedicated efforts by drafting these bills. Tell your congressional representatives about
the harm that is being done to collectors, curators, musicians, antique dealers and all US
Citizens by the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s criminalization and policing of private
citizen’s legal possessions. For more information about proposed ivory legislation in your
state, go to http://www.elephantprotection.org/.
Please do not delay – act now.

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Igavel ArtTrak Auctions Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:12 am

≫ Next: Tribal Art Magazine - Auction results Summer 2015

≪ Previous: U.S. Govt Ivory Ban July 2015

In the next ten days we will post links and highlights of the sale on Igavel.com

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Tribal Art Magazine - Auction results Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:12 am

≫ Next: Ivory and The Metropolitan Museum

≪ Previous: Igavel ArtTrak Auctions Summer 2015

Click on the link below for printed pdf price results of many current tribal art auctions

http://www.tribalartmagazine.com/index.php?content=auctions&mode=list&page=1&lang=en

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Ivory and The Metropolitan Museum

August 11, 2015, 9:14 am

≫ Next: My Word Summer 2015

≪ Previous: Tribal Art Magazine - Auction results Summer 2015

When the public thinks about ivory, they pretty much are at the mercy of the negative pr campaigns waged by the state and federal governments The environmentalists would like you to believe its solely about murdering elephants, cheap ivory trinkets made in China, or evil dealers making exorbitant profits on the black market. No the problem is far more complex and does not lend itself well to simplistic solutions. No, the approach should actually about identifying the problem, analyzing the data, coming up with a plan, and then managing the solution. The idea that attacking the market place solves all problems is not proven methodology. Without an established network of government and state officials that can identify ivory and can authenticate the art objects that get caught up in this mess, there is no hope that a government can efficiently manage an ivory program. But they will raise money through permits, fines. Unfortunately, they will also spend more that will come out of your pocket. It is a sad day when our government can vilify some of the greatest works of art in the Metropolitan Museum. Contact your state and federal representatives to oppose this sledge hammer approach to resource management. In the meantime here are a few of some of the great works of art at the Met.

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My Word Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 9:37 am

≫ Next: Photographs - Around The World - Summer 2015

≪ Previous: Ivory and The Metropolitan Museum

This summer has been busy traveling to Tucson, Spokane, Omaha, Cleveland, Little Rock, and now finally Charleston, South Carolina. The journey brought us to camera with everything from a shrunken head to a Mississippian effigy figure proving you never know what will happen on the Roadshow. In Charleston we worked with Emma Mooney a student from Beloit College that was awarded a grant to study the Roadshow. This was a first for Antiques Roadshow. As you will see from the blog she is writing, Emma is a very special young lady with a bright future.
http://qualityjunkventuregrant.tumblr.com

In this issue we have again focused on the ivory ban which truly is at a crossroads with bills in the House and Senate and the environmentalists turning up the heat in the State legislatures. The auction market continues to be insane at the upper end and unpredictable in the middle markets. The major art sellers still recognize that a great deal of money is being left on the table and are trying to find a digital solution that solves this problem. There are some great buys now in small and middle size auctions that don't have the overhead of the big auction houses.

On August 19th ArtTrak auctions will work with Igavel.com to present a tribal auction that will feature some great bargains from client collections that are downsizing. We will send out another notice of this event.

This already promises to be a very busy Fall with appraisals, auctions, and client appointments scheduled all over the country. If you have need of any appraisal or authentication work, let us know we may be able to meet with you on one of these trips.

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Photographs - Around The World - Summer 2015

August 11, 2015, 5:05 pm

≫ Next: African Art - A Different Look - Summer 2015

≪ Previous: My Word Summer 2015

Afganistan

Serbia Cave

Dzitrup, Mexico

Uganda

1991 Kuwait Oil Fields Burning

South Africa - Rhino

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African Art - A Different Look - Summer 2015

August 12, 2015, 7:40 am

≫ Next: Trending Art Markets Summer 2015

≪ Previous: Photographs - Around The World - Summer 2015

1. Kuba Textiles: Geometry in Form, Space, and Time
Neuberger Museum of Art
Through June 14

Purchase, N.Y.
In 1885, German explorer Heinrich Ludwig Wolf (1850-1889) was the first European to enter the Kuba kingdom in the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. United under one ruler in the 17th century, Kuba refers to both an empire and each of its 18 distinct African tribes. An engraving illustrating Wolf’s first encounter is reproduced in the catalog for “Kuba Textiles: Geometry in Form, Space, and Time,” a groundbreaking and visually stunning exhibition at the Neuberger Museum of Art.
The print depicts the moment when the Kuba prince, leading an immense procession, reaches Wolf’s camp. Enormous, stalwart and barrel-chested, the prince wears a feathered headdress, a richly folded woven raffia skirt and a beaded sash. Standing in a borne basket, he holds a buffalo-tail scepter and towers above everyone else. Unusual for its time, the illustration (c. 1887) gives pride of place—and scale—not to the “civilized” Wolf, but to the “primitive” prince. “Like many subsequent images,” Christraud M. Geary, curator emerita of African and Oceanic art at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, writes in the show’s catalog, “this first depiction seizes the spectacle and splendor of Kuba royalty.”
One might expect, then, that a Kuba exhibition would be resplendent—a stupefying array of exotic feathered headdresses and ornately beaded costumes. Nineteenth- and early 20th-century photographs, postcards and trading cards here show Kuba kings swaddled in multicolored armadillo-like regalia—riddled with glass beads, ivory and mottled seashells; as fireworks of plumage shoot from their crowns, and all but their tightly cropped faces disappear beneath bedazzling second skins.
Curated by Marie-Thérèse Brincard, the Neuberger’s show of more than 100 objects does include a gathering of superb shell-and-beadwork pieces—intricate, ornamental royal baskets, sashes, bracelets, anklets, armlets and a visored crown that exemplify the Kuba’s decorative embrace of horror vacui.
Here too is a section devoted to tukula—a reddish powder, or subsequent paste, extracted from trees and utilized for everything from money to sculpture. Dry, tukula was used to dye textiles. Mixed with oil, it served as a cosmetic, which stained the interiors of its wooden storage boxes the colors of blood and fire. Tukula hardwood, when shaved and mixed with clay and leaves, produced a malleable paste that was sculpted into talismanic animals, tools and human heads. These blackened, handheld abstract objects, known as mboong itool, suggest carved burned-wood and reddish sandstone. Made only by women, and incised with abstract patterns, they were often bestowed as funerary gifts.

Detail of ‘Panel (?) for a ceremonial skirt’ (late 19th-20th century). Photo: Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, Tervuren

A remarkable ensemble of tukula, mboong itool and lidded wooden boxes—all never before exhibited—is on display. Though abstract, the mboong itool represent turtles, huts, headrests, boats, masks, insects, musical instruments and the moon. One ubiquitous form, the shinambwa, or the wagging “tail of dog,” is also believed to represent a knife or a catfish. Resembling those forms, and also a butterfly, bird, foot, hook, boomerang and amoeba, it is commonly found on the Kuba’s masterly, unassuming woven raffia fiber (palm leaf) textiles—whose richness, subtlety and understated power are the soul of this exhibition.
Abstract, spare and often monochromatic, the raffia fiber textiles—experienced here in numerous men’s and women’s ceremonial skirts and overskirts, some nearly 30 feet long—were also at the very heart of the Kuba. In the show’s catalog, Ms. Brincard reminds us that African sculpture, favored by Western collectors, was long-believed to be “Africa’s major art form,” but that “textiles, pottery, decorative arts, and furniture [are] of equal cultural importance in African societies.” “Kuba Textiles” redresses that misconception. And it does so much more.
Not only is this show overflowing with huge, gorgeous textiles, but it acts as an object lesson in the language of pure abstraction. The textiles’ decorations may at times suggest abbreviated or distilled forms from the natural world, but forms exist here as elemental forces. The Kuba skirts achieve what the Dutch abstractionist Piet Mondrian referred to as “dynamic equilibrium”—the energetic bond between figure and ground, energy and form, stasis and movement, the organic and the rational.
These extremely long rectangular skirts, completely unfurled here—hanging from the ceiling and mounted in enormous vitrines—expand like abstract landscapes. Earth-toned, their grounds are usually a natural tan or deep tukula red. They are starkly, geometrically decorated with black, blue, red, brown, tan and white checkerboards, rectangles, lines, diamonds, circles, dashes, dots, triangles, organic shapes and interlacing, zigzagging and overlapping patterns. When overlying sandy colored scraps of cloth are sewn together with darker thread, they conjure an undulating desert. At other times, as in “Central panel for a woman’s royal overskirt (ncák buiin)” (19th century?), interlacing, variously sized crosses—as if lifted directly from the carpet pages of the medieval “Lindisfarne Gospels”—suggest the strumming pulse of nature.
Since these ceremonial skirts were originally wrapped around their wearers, they were never intended to be experienced as full compositions. But, since they were created as a whole (woven into cloth by Kuba men; then hemmed, dyed and embellished by Kuba women), one senses in each skirt an evolving composition in which forms, patterns and logic develop, as if working out their own fates.
Most striking here is a sense of birth and evolution; of forms and forces interacting, responding, gathering and multiplying. The roughly 3-feet-by-9-feet “Panel (?) for a ceremonial skirt” (late 19th-20th century), made up of polyphonic series of multisized diagonals, lines, rectangles and triangles, is as rhythmically dynamic as the taut, pulsing plane, comprising variously sized, primary colored rectangles, in Mondrian’s “Broadway Boogie Woogie.” Other pieces, though sparer, are equally ordered and comprehensive. Or they are activated further with scalloped borders, fringe and pompoms.
In “Four panels for a ceremonial skirt” (20th century), within a series of consecutive rectangular mazes, we experience points becoming lines, which widen into planes and then group together, suggesting veins, limbs, deltas and archipelagoes. Explored here are notions of penetration, expansion, growth and progression. We experience the birth of the diagonal, the diamond, repetition and frieze.
Looking at this and other masterworks here, I couldn’t help but wonder if Wolf, who was first to write about and to sing the praises of Kuba textiles, felt as if he had encountered the cradle of civilization.
Mr. Esplund writes about art for the Journal.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/kuba-textiles-geometry-in-form-space-and-time-review-1431378503

2. ST. LOUIS -Bruno Claessens

“Kota: Digital Excavations in African Art” – an upcoming exhibition at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (October 2015)

This October, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation will present Kota: Digital Excavations in African Art, an exhibition that examines new ways to study and reveal the hidden histories of antique Kota reliquaries from Gabon. The exhibition, co-curated by Frederic Cloth (a Belgian computer engineer and independent researcher) and Kristina Van Dyke, will present more than 50 reliquary guardian here.

figures from both public as private collections. Cloth (who also designed the software of the Yale University – van Rijn Archive of African art) developed a custom-build database and search engine exclusively used to analyze Kota statues. Using a series of algorithms, he was able to detect unprecedented patterns in his sample of over 2,000 reliquaries. I’ve witnessed this database first hand and must say it is very exciting to finally see somebody using digital tools properly to gain new insights in otherwise ‘silent’ objects. This new kind of approach presents exciting possibilities for groups of African objects that lack deep provenance and contextual data, although not all types of art obviously are as suitable to work with. The exhibition will explore both the algorithmic tool and the fascinating African sculptural tradition; you can read more about it
Earlier this year, Frederic Cloth already gave a sneak peek of his findings during a lecture, called Algorithms and Mathematics Applied to the Reconstitution of Lost Traditions, at the de Young Museum in conjunction with the opening day celebration of Embodiments: Masterworks of African Figurative Sculpture. You can see it below, it’s highly recommended:
http://brunoclaessens.com/2015/05/kota-digital-excavations-in-african-art-an-upcoming-exhibition-at-the-pulitzer-arts-foundation-october-2015/#.VcqCSP7bJGE

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Trending Art Markets Summer 2015

August 12, 2015, 7:45 am

≫ Next: State and Federal Legal Issues

≪ Previous: African Art - A Different Look - Summer 2015

With Sothebys and Christies not accepting property that is below $5,000 per lot, there is a huge amount of money left on the table that many auction houses are scrambling to attract. Certainly since 2008 economic conditions have impacted on middle and lower markets, but somebody will figure out how to capture this market segment. Considering all associated costs clearly online sales is the only viable platform that makes sense. There will be more coverage on this topic. See past blog entries on Amazon and the Sothebys and Ebay partnership.

NEW YORK - Let's say you're not a millionaire but you're still interested in buying affordable art from the comfort of your living room. Where do you find something that is between craft-oriented websites like Etsy and high-end auction houses like Sotheby's? Now, new companies — like Paddle8,

Ocula, Artline, Saatchi Art, Artsy, Amazon Art — are trying to fill the gap.
In a sun-drenched loft near downtown Los Angeles, carefully coiffed curatorial assistants are talking art with buyers over the phone. This is the West Coast office of Paddle8, an online marketplace that sells mid-range art. It was co-founded in 2011 by Alexander Gilkes, 35, formerly the chief auctioneer for Phillips, the third-largest auction house.
Much of the art on his site is within reach of a middle-class consumer, he says: "Our average selling price across the site is $5,000."
Online art sales went up more than 30 percent last year, according to an analysis by the European Fine Art Fair. It found the online market is mostly mid-range art — a growing and lucrative — niche. Even Sotheby's teamed up with eBay this spring, after its online art sales shot up 100 percent last year, according to a company video.
Like eBay, Paddle8 is an auction site, but unlike eBay, everything's curated and authenticated. And being in the digital space comes with some economic advantages that Paddle8 says it passes along to its customers. For example, Paddle8 does not have to staff and schedule expensive viewings in posh locations or take months to produce costly catalogs.

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