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Ivory smugglings out of African and into Hong Kong is big in the news today, was not going to do a post on it (too upsetting and this is a blog on antiquities not elephants) but had to note this one. A New York City antiques dealer has
pleaded guilty to smuggling artefacts made from rhinoceros horns from
the U.S. to China.
Useful fact about the guy who's been in the centre of a number of high-profile antiquity (and other) cases recently (on the side of the White Hat Guys of course) U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. The Start Tribune tells us the surname is correctly pronounced: buh-RAH'-ruh.
'NYC antiques dealer pleads guilty to smuggling artifacts made from rhino horns to China', Star Tribune August 7, 2013.
Vignette: Jeffrey Wang going to jail?
Ivory smugglings out of African and into Hong Kong is big in the news today, was not going to do a post on it (too upsetting and this is a blog on antiquities not elephants) but had to note this one. A New York City antiques dealer has
pleaded guilty to smuggling artefacts made from rhinoceros horns from
the U.S. to China.Qiang Wang, known as Jeffrey Wang, pleaded guilty to wildlife smuggling conspiracy Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. [U.S. Attorney Preet] Bharara says Wang smuggled Asian artifacts made from rhino horns and ivory from New York to Hong Kong and China in violation of wildlife trafficking laws [...] Wang was arrested in February. The 34-year-old faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced in October. Bharara says Wang faked U.S. Customs documents on packages containing the artifacts. An attorney for Wang did not respond to a request for comment.Neither would I if I found myself defending scumbag smugglers. "Rhinos are an endangered species" offers the Star Tribune helpfully for those in the US who'd not actually realised that. Now it gives you a warm tingly feeling inside that there are SOME things which the US restricts the export of, thus giving grounds for a optimistic belief that some of its citizens might eventually come to understand that other nations feel strongly about export of certain kinds of cultural property and there is nothing perverted or suspicious in that. [In general the US does not restrict the export of anything much which is why I suspect US dealers and collectors really cannot get their heads round this "foreign" concept.]
Useful fact about the guy who's been in the centre of a number of high-profile antiquity (and other) cases recently (on the side of the White Hat Guys of course) U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. The Start Tribune tells us the surname is correctly pronounced: buh-RAH'-ruh.
'NYC antiques dealer pleads guilty to smuggling artifacts made from rhino horns to China', Star Tribune August 7, 2013.
Vignette: Jeffrey Wang going to jail?
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