Antique dealers who think of agents from the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) as officious bureaucrats toting clipboards, need to revise that image, or they may not take the looming threat seriously enough.
If the situation facing the antique industry were a movie, these agents wouldn’t be played by Don Knotts in the character of befuddled Deputy Fife issuing a parking warning to the town librarian.
Instead of stammering Barney think of Clint Eastwood. Imagine scowling Dirty Harry prowling the streets of San Francisco searching for the maniacal Scorpion, or better yet, John Wayne as Colonel Mike Kirby leading a Green Beret assault against the Viet Cong in the Mekong Delta.
These DFG agents are serious about their new mission, and in the words of someone who had a surprise meeting with a bunch of them, “armed to the teeth.” Their newest battlegrounds are the auctions galleries, antique malls, and the flea markets where you buy your antique furniture, jewelry and vintage clothing.
Certainly for one northern California auctioneer, his image of the DFG, after one spine- tingling encounter, has been forever changed.
Bob Slawinski used to think of the DFG as another government agency to check in with to make sure he was in compliance with their regulations. Now he doesn’t, nor do the young women who witnessed the frightening episode.
On the evening of February 19th a squad of heavily-armed agents exploded from their black van and stormed into the Slawinski Auction’s preview. As if it were the climatic scene from “Raid on Entebbe,” in the style of Israeli commandos, the agents seized 40 lots of antique ivory worth about $150,000. When it was over, Bob was left with a receipt and scattered nerves. The girls were stunned and confused. This was nothing like watching Park Ranger Smith helping Boo-Boo Bear out of a trashcan.
DFG’s top media gun minimizes the dimensions of the raid
Countering this scintillating portrait of agency zealotry is “Mr. Ahh Shucks,” Patrick Foy, the telegenic and affable spokesman for the DFG that mothers love and fathers would trust with their virginal daughters. With boyish charm, he good-naturedly disputes the magnitude and ferocity of the raid. He’d probably prefer not to call it a raid—he is more likely to characterize it as a “rendezvous.” Using his “protector of Yogi the Bear” drawl, he says, “I doubt we’re able to get 25 uniformed and armed officers together in this state at one time. That’s a little over the top.”
DFG charm offensive
Foy is a media pro. He looks like a cross between a young Kevin Costner from “Dances with Wolves” and a mature Alvin the Chipmunk from the upcoming “The Geezermunk who stole Christmas.” He’s the kind of guy one could have easily imagined on the Johnny Carson Show trying to get the uneasy host to pet a cranky koala bear with fidgety black eyes. He’s media’s go to guy when it comes to encounters with man and beast. Without a moment’s hesitation, he can explain the subtle differences between a mountain lion, cougar and puma (it’s actually different names for the same cat), and could easily be the grand champion on “Animal Jeopardy.” When challenged by reporters, it almost sounds like he’s answering their questions by saying “I’ll take kangaroo rats for $200, Alex.”
Although this raid on the auction house wasn’t the goose-stepping Blitzkrieg that the auctioneer sees in his imagination, to borrow the title from the 1958 Titanic movie, it was definitely “A Night to Remember,” but more accurately, it was a night he’d like to forget. Unfortunately, this was just the opening act of the DFG’s multi-million dollar production of “Seize every vestige of ivory on the market.” Or in the vernacular of Mr. Ahh Shucks, “liberate.”
Infiltration
Right now the DFG covert operatives, pretending to be shoppers, are trolling antique malls, shows and auctions in search of more targets of liberation.
Fortunately, before the DFG could run too many surprise operations against dealers unaware of the dramatic change in the law, a whistle blower helped mitigate some of the damage by igniting a Rebel Alliance.
The beginning of the Rebel Alliance
This antiquer version of Luke Skywalker is Rosie DeStories, co-owner of Fairfield Auction in Monroe, Connecticut, and she is the sister of the auctioneer who “rendezvoused” with the DFG.
On February 20th, she launched the Insurgency by sending out this email blast to a list of colleagues.
“The state of California Department of Fish & Game is actively raiding auction houses and antique shows, confiscating ivory. It is now illegal to sell or have any intent to sell ANY IVORY within the state of California or to sell to any bidders within the state of California regardless of the age of the ivory. The fine is a minimum if $1,000 per violation and a maximum up to $5,000 per violation.”
Although Rosie DeStories put effort into deciphering this latest permutation of the law, it’s tough mining through the arcane catacombs of the DFG website. It’s confusing and the DFG is slower than a Galapagos Giant Tortoise in returning emails or phone calls.
It was thought that 100 year old ivory was okay
Whether is was true or not, the common belief was that it was safe to sell ivory that was documented to be at least 100 years old.
Silent Warning
If DFG had publicly made that earthshaking announcement about the radical changes, it was as quiet as an ocelot’s purr and never roused the attention of the Southern California antique network.
Clarification and amplification came from a most unlikely source.
Crazy Wall
In the movie, “A Beautiful Mind” starring Russell Crowe playing mathematician John Nash, there was a mind bending scene where suddenly we got a startling look at a wall covered in newspaper clippings, a collage of scrawled notes, all strung together in a chaotic web. In an instant, we discovered that the genius is actually a delusional schizophrenic.
A similar scene was played out in La Verne, CA, at Collector’s worldwide headquarters at Starbucks. Except in this case, confusion led to clarity. A slightly senile Yoda used Facebook to fight the Dark Side by encouraging new members of the resistance to post comments and links on what had become a “crazy wall.”
More clarification
In the midst of this mélange of confusion, a clear but sobering message was posted by a reliable source: Jack DeStories, Rosie’s husband. Not only did he accept the friend request, but he posted a further clarification of his wife’s clarion call: “In California, all earlier Federal statutes have been overridden by a recent statute banning the sale of all elephant parts—period and regardless of age. That includes old pianos with ivory keys, many pool cues, violins and portrait miniatures painted on ivory. It also means selling an 18th century chest of drawers with ivory escutcheons is now illegal.” According to Jack, outside of California there is a distinction between Asian and African elephant ivory. Asian must be 100 years old, and African must pre-date the CITES law, which was established in 1987. But, in California it looks like all ivory is treated the same, and just about all wildlife parts—period.”
Stunning, but clear
The absoluteness of the announcement was stunning, but at least the industry is better prepared to defend itself against the Empire.
As this unsettling news started to sink in, something else started to happen. It was a subtle transformation in self-identification.
Wide implications
At first, many dealers dismissed the significance of the news, thinking, “that doesn’t affect me. I’m not an ivory or wildlife dealer!” However, as they started to look around their shops, they started to realize they were not exempt from the problem.
The law is not just about obvious uses of ivory, like a four-foot elephant tusk carved into a bridge. It’s all illegal to sell, even a tiny sliver of the substance on a piece of sterling silver flatware, made to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. Many brass, percussion and stringed musical instruments are now contraband. The most obvious example is the piano with its 88 ivory keys, but several other instruments, including trumpets, oboes, and bassoons may have some discrete bits here and there. Many violins use ivory pegs and tailpieces. Owners of Fender and Martin guitars may get a little jittery when they discover that their bridge pins and strap buttons are probably made from ivory.
Jewelry dealers shouldn’t rest easy, either. Although there’s a long list of the substance in necklaces, bracelets and brooches, the one that DFG agents will spot first are cameos.
Major showpromoters join the cause
Out of state, the Rebel Alliance was further fortified by Hans Solo, and Princess Leah, also known as Michael “Raccoonman” Grimes, producer of the Calendar Shows and Nancy “Wonder Woman” Johnson, manager of Hillsborough.
The two show promoters received a joint communiqué from tole tray dealer, Anne Slater, apprising them of what was going on. Nancy had already gotten wind of it and alerted her dealers in their news blast.
Literary Blast
Grimes alerted his dealers by email and urged fine arts dealer, Robert Sommers a ferocious blogger with a wicked sense of style, to jump on the story using his popular Blue Heron Blast. Showing the subtle, but pernicious aspects of the law, Sommers wryly commented, “My 1905 Washburn guitar has ivory inlays in the fretboard. Is it now contraband?”
Victory at Del Mar
It all worked nearly perfectly: by the time the Del Mar Show was in operation on Friday, April 13, the ivory ban was a hot topic. Initial reports were that it was an entirely an ivory free zone. Unfortunately, according to a post on the Crazy Wall by ephemera dealer Richard Strell, one dealer, knowing full well that it was not allowed, defied the ban by bringing a pair of ivory binoculars. Even with the minor failure, it is a credit to the industry that it could respond so well to this level of adversity. The State of California is a powerful foe, but at least the antique industry won this latest battle. The war goes on.
The story behind the story
Although Facebook has the reputation as a superficial digital romp of silly photos of kitties playing with balls of yarn and teenage keg parties, in this case the platform served as a powerful research tool and efficient mechanism for spreading the word.
Although most of the drama did play out on Facebook, the saga started with an old fashioned call received on a faux alligator backed iPhone. This warning that something insidious was brewing came from one Frank!’s first Facebook friends, Oceanside jewelry dealer, T.C. Leary. She has 2,218 friends.
But it was certified appraiser, ANA member, Barbara Pickett who was the first to take it public by posting on Frank!’s wall. The urgency of taking action was further escalated when Shauna Novotny, owner of Novotny’s on Colorado in Pasadena, asked Frank! to pursue the story after she heard about the Wertz Antique Mart raid. The Appraisers National Association (ANA) was alerted, so that they could get the word out through their influential membership. One of their members, Bill Belisle, Chairman of the Fine Arts Department at the College for Appraisers, found several websites to flesh out the story.
The information contained in these pages is overwhelming in its scope and verbiage. Eventually, Collector magazine plans to find individuals who can translate the information so that it is easy to understand and relevant to the practical needs of the industry.
CALIFORNIA WEB SITES
California’s List of Threatened and Endangered Species:
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/nongame/t_e_spp/
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/biogeodata/cnddb/pdfs/TEAnimals.pdf
For some general provisions of the California Fish and Game code, see California Laws of the Department of Fish and Game:
http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/code/Fish_and_Game_Code.html
FEDERAL (U.S.) WEB SITES
FEDERAL laws — U.S. Wildlife Laws:
http://www.lab.fws.gov/wildlife_laws.php
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory: http://www.lab.fws.gov/index.php
This article was prepared in an attempt to alert the industry about the problem it faces. The publisher takes no responsibility for possible inaccuracies when making references to the law. This is very complicated stuff. Collector has tried its best to tell you what it has heard and where it heard it. The rest is up to you.
F!
Ivory Warning From Collector magazine 