Unidentified Kongo (Vili) Artist
Date:
Between 1850 and 1910
Medium:
Elephant ivory
Size:
Depth: 1 3/16″
Width: 2 3/8″
Height: 21 1/4″

Look closely, and you will see scenes of 19th-century life in the Kingdom of Kongo carved into this tusk. People greet each other on the street. Porters carry heavy boxes and ivory tusks. Monkeys laugh. Since 1483, when Portuguese sailors first arrived in the region, the Kingdom of Kongo served as an important trading partner for European nations. Between 1850 and 1910, Kongolese artists memorialized these scenes on carved tusks created for European traders.

Gift of Alan Wurtzburger BMA 1953.133a

Illegal Ivory Trade

Transcript

[Pierre Larson] Elephant hunting has been going on in Africa for a very long time. The ivory that we see in
front of us is a representation of that.
[Aaron Henkin] It was the growing European demand for ivory that led to the decimation of the African
elephant population
[Pierre Larson] That continues today, but it continues on a scale that is far greater than in the past. That’s
why taking ivory out of Africa is illegal. This piece, however, was made and brought out of Africa well before
there were legal prohibitions on the export of ivory.