Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumMuseums - the latest victims in the illegal trade of elephant tusks and rhino horns
WTF?
Chainsaw man caught stealing tusk from Louis XIV elephant in Paris
"Visitors to Paris's popular Museum of Natural History this weekend found a key exhibit under wraps after a man broke in and chainsawed a tusk from an elephant which once belonged to the Sun King, Louis XIV.
Police were called to the museum in the early hours of Saturday morning where they found a chainsaw still whirring after a man in his 20s escaped over a wall with a tusk over his shoulder. A police official said a neighbour of the museum on Paris's Left Bank alerted authorities after hearing a strange sawing sound at around 3am. The museum alarm system was activated and startled the intruder into fleeing just minutes after beginning his chainsaw attack. He was treated in hospital for a fractured ankle from a fall while escaping and was being questioned by investigators.
The African elephant, whose left tusk was sawn off, was a gift from a Portuguese king to Louis XIV in 1668. It lived for 13 years in the royal menagerie in the grounds of the opulent palace of Versailles where it became the star attraction. When it died, its skeleton was transferred to the natural history collection in Paris, one of the biggest in the world alongside London's Natural History Museum."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/31/chainsaw-man-stealing-elephant-tusk-paris-museum
pscot
(21,024 posts)Since it's pre-ban. It might end up here: http://www.boonetrading.com/Pg24.html
Most of the illegal ivory goes to China:
So much illegal ivory ends up in China that more than half of all large-scale seizures (any above 800 kg) occur within its borders. From 2009 to 2011, this totaled 29,000 kg, according to data from the Elephant Traffic Information System, a global monitoring system for tracking illegal ivory trade. The payoff for smugglers is huge: over the past year, the black-market price of raw ivory has more than tripled in China, from $270 to $900 per pound. Finished ivory carvings can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars each, while intricately carved tusks can sell for more than a million.
http://world.time.com/2012/10/15/blood-ivory-hong-kong-fights-a-losing-battle-against-smugglers/
narnian60
(3,510 posts)stuntcat
(12,022 posts)#humanity Win!