Winner
Brent Stirton
Getty Images
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"GOD'S IVORY"
BEIJING, CHINA, NOVEMBER 2011: A sales assistant lays out a $250 000 Ivory carving depicting the Buddhist legend of the Three Monks at White Peacock Arts World, Beijing, China, November 15 2011. There has been an explosion in recent years for Ivory in China. Wealthy chinese see it as a manifestiation of their faith, a symbol of good fortune as well as a good investment. There is a great deal of illegal ivory coming into China to sate the demands of these fast rising, newly wealthy 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. 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. 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.
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