Winner
Brent Stirton
Getty Images
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"GOD'S IVORY"
BEIJING, CHINA, NOVEMBER 2011: A master carver and his apprentice at Beijing Jin Mao Bone Carving Arts and Crafts, a 50 year old Ivory carving factory and the largest of the Chinese Ivory carving concerns in Beijing, China. This company was one of only two Ivory factories in 1989, now there are 35 across China. Most of these companies exist in a state of quasi-privatisation but the government has ownership of a number of factories. This factory has 34 carvers and claims to do over 50 big pieces every year, a big piece is the equivalent of one tusk, as well as "countless" smaller pieces. A large tusk weighs on average 20kg. This is somewhat contradictory with what they claim is their annual ivory allowance of 400kg in total. There is a great deal of illegal ivory coming into China to sate the demands of the fast rising newly wealth Chinese. There has furthermore been a crisis amongst skilled master carvers in China in that most of them are becoming older without sufficient young apprentices. In 2006 the government instituted a program for student carvers and provides subsidies for them. The master carver at this factory is Luan Yan Juao, 56, who has been carving since he was 16. He is seen working on the largest project at the factory, an exceptionally large tusk with a famous Buddhist scene which is a 3 year project. It appears that China is relying publicly on a bid for new Ivory stocks every 10 years, it bought 60 tons in 2008, and officials talk about another bid soon. It is a public fact that the Chinese and Japanese delegations travelled together to the last Ivory auction, where they bid as one, enabling them to keep the price very low, around $500 a kilo. In turn they are retailing it for around $2500 a kilo, in many cases to themselves and thus quadrupling their profits pre-carving. A large tusk sells in Beijing for a million RMB, roughly $160 000 and the price for a master-piece can go beyond $500 000.
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