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In 2018, international auction houses Sotheby’s and Bonhams bowed to pressure from wildlife conservation groups and agreed to ban the sale of rhino horn artefacts, with Bonhams cancelling a sale of rhinoceros carvings scheduled to take place in Hong Kong. Sumner’s position appears out of step with that of some of his former colleagues. “This is the same policy that I have held to since my days at Sotheby’s, some twenty-plus years ago, where, with the same team of Asian art experts, we agreed on a policy that would balance the need to do our part in halting the modern-day illicit trade in such raw materials and the need to protect genuine works of art.”
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“Our policy is not to handle any un-worked ivory or rhino horn, or any pieces that are not antique and genuine works of art and valuable first and foremost for this fact,” Sumner says. (In some Asian cultures rhino horn is believed to have medicinal properties, even though it is made of keratin, the same substance as human hair and nails.) In 2018, BADA (the British Antique Dealers’ Association) called for stricter regulations of rhino horn products, saying that only items of high artistic merit dating from pre-1947 with a value of more than £100 per gram should be allowed for sale. I believe this is the position of the British antique associations, LAPADA, BADA, and others.”
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“In fact it could be counter-productive, as the trade will simply go underground if a blanket ban were introduced, making policing very hard for governments. “We take the position of many in the antiques trade here in Australia and globally that while everyone wants to halt the despicable trade in modern ivory and other protected animals, a blanket ban on antique works of art will not solve the problem,” he told Saleroom. While there are still people wanting to buy these items and while these markets exist, it’s seen as a green light and well worth it for the poachers to go out hunting for the horn and the tusk.”īut Sumner has no intention of removing the rhino horn objects from his upcoming sale. They don’t see that their auctions are seen as a green light to poachers. “Part of the issue is that they don’t see themselves as part of the problem. “It’s really disheartening in this day and age with everything we know about the impact of trade in wildlife and how that trade pushes threatened species to the brink of extinction, that some companies and individuals still choose to profit from the commercial sales of such items,” IFAW’s Regional Director Oceania, Rebecca Keeble, told Saleroom this week.Ī Chinese rhino horn ‘lotus leaf’ libation cup, early Qing Dynasty, 17th-18th century, estimated at $200,000 to $300,000, benign sold at Artvisory’s Fine Chinese and Asian Arts auction on Sunday 15 August, in Melbourne. The most expensive of the contentious objects, a Chinese rhino horn ‘lotus leaf’ libation cup from the early Qing Dynasty, 17th to 18th century, has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.
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The three objects have a total estimated value of between $257,000 to $379,000, and are being sold at Artvisory’s Fine Chinese and Asian Arts sale on 15 August. The non-profit International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) will be writing to Sumner asking that he withdraw the items from the auction. Tensions over the sale of objects made from endangered wildlife have flared again as auctioneer Paul Sumner prepares to put three antique artefacts made from rhinoceros horn under the hammer in Melbourne next month at his new venture Artvisory.