Ivory and protected species (CITES)
Objects containing ivory, tortoiseshell, coral or rare wood subject to CITES: permits, possible seizure, and cover usually excluded.
An eighteenth-century violin has an ivory-tipped bow, a chest of drawers carries tortoiseshell marquetry, a crucifix is carved from Dieppe ivory. The 1973 Washington Convention (CITES) governs trade in these materials. EU Regulation 338/97 requires a pre-convention or exemption certificate for elephant ivory. In France, the order of August 16, 2016, amended in 2017, bans trade in elephant ivory except, under conditions, for worked items made before March 2, 1947 and, among items made between 1947 and July 1, 1975, those containing less than 200 grams; the burden of proving age falls on the holder. The insurer's risk is seizure. For want of a permit, customs may block a work on arrival in London or New York and hold it for months. Confiscation is not physical damage under nail-to-nail wordings, which exclude seizure by authorities. The age of the material matters more than its condition. Art shippers now ask for the CITES paperwork before packing and refuse the crate without it.
Textbook case: a tortoiseshell-marquetry cabinet insured at 120,000 euros travels from a Maastricht fair to a New York gallery without a re-export permit. The federal wildlife service holds it for nine weeks. There is no damage, but the show is missed, and the insurer relies on the seizure exclusion.
CITES artworks, ivory in artworks, ivory seizure art, protected species materials in art
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