The British government introduced a law which banned the sale of Ivory whether new or antique, as you can imagine this this is not liked by antique dealers as it makes it very hard if not impossible to sell any item that has ivory in it.
There are several good things about this new law, though. Trade in antique items that have ivory within them often happens at high prices, people see the value of the ivory and therefore it encourages wild elephants to be killed. Even if their ivory is then burnt and doesn’t get sold the animal has still been killed.
It is is on occasion possible to get a case-by-case exemption and this is the way that it must work. Anything that moves the sale of Ivory towards legal in any form should never be allowed, the poaching epidemic of the elephants over the last decade or so must not be encouraged or or we could see the end of wild elephants in many of their remaining habitats.
