China's Ivory-Substitute Carving Industry - Extinct Mammoth Carvings

The New York Times published an insightful article on the increased production and sale of extinct mammoth ivory, August 7, 2017.
Weaning Itself From Elephant Ivory, China Turns to Mammoths
The article notes the source of this new, legally saleable ivory is the melting permafrost of Russia’s Arctic. But it also quotes an expert, Mark Jones, associate director for policy for the Born Free Foundation, a wildlife conservation organization based in London, who said "As long as there is a legal trade in mammoth, ivory of all kinds can be laundered into it."

Carving mammoth ivory tusks at a workshop of Jin Sha Mammoth on the outskirts of Beijing

Provenance and Plunder at Museums

Aljazeera recently reported on an interesting story of interest to Asian art collectors of antiquities.
Provenance and plunder: What museums won't tell us. On how Western museums encourage and abet the smuggling of antiquities.
For the article, click here.
The next time you visit museums, consider what the labels do not say about where the art came from. As the article notes, "Museums fight against having to reveal the provenance of objects precisely because they know that many of the objects in their vast collections have illicit histories behind them."
That being said, it is important to remember that decades ago when museums began acquiring Asian pieces, the world was a different place and removal to a museum often saved pieces from ruin.

IVORY CRUSH IN NYC 8-3-2017

I just heard about this, it would be interesting to see it live. 

A Ton of Ivory will be Crushed in NY's Central Park