Merces Gallery, a Great Neck, New York-based online auction business, and its proprietors Grace Hu and Yincheng Wu were indicted on 14 June by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for selling tens of thousands of dollars worth of objects made from elephant ivory and rhino horn. Hu, Wu and their gallery have each been been charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with three counts of illegal commercialisation of wildlife.
“Yincheng Wu and Grace Hu allegedly sold thousands of dollars’ worth of illegal ivory, harming an already endangered species by perpetuating the illicit market for ivory,” District Attorney Bragg said in a statement. “Those who partake in the illegal ivory trade will be held accountable.”
Merces Gallery was registered in 2020 by Wu and Hu, who are the only signatories on the account set up at JP Morgan Chase Bank to collect proceeds from the gallery's online auctions, conducted both through its website, mercesgallery.com, and LiveAuctioneers. Merces Gallery listed auction items under the ambiguous category of “Rare Material” that resembled rhinoceros horns or elephant tusks, omitting the true nature of the objects. Wu and Hu sold nearly $40,000 worth of ivory products to an undercover lieutenant from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation's Environmental Conservation Police in three different transactions: an elephant ivory rosary bead priced at $4,800; a triad of elephant ivory figurines for $2,640 and a carved elephant tusk for $31,950.
The elephant ivory rosary sold by Merces Gallery Manhattan District Attorney's Office
The word “ivory” was not mentioned during the officier’s initial in-person payment in Great Neck, nor in the listing for the rosary—it was labeled as "CHINESE GOLD-INLAID RARE MATERIAL 18-COUNTS ROSARY" online—but Hu and Wu allegedly began referring to the set of figures as ivory after receiving the first payment. During negotiations about the carved ivory tusk, Wu noted, “we will probably have some problems with customs”, adding that “this item is pretty sensitive”.
The tusk was delivered by Wu to an undercover officer in Manhattan on 18 April 2023. In further inquiries about future exchanges, Wu wrote: “Like this piece we have several, but you have select. We have a lot of piece, I know you prefer the ivory.”
The Department of Environmental Conservation's interim commissioner, Sean Mahar, said in a statement: “New York State does not tolerate the international illegal wildlife trade and is committed to prosecuting those who profit from it."
Last year, a dealer in Miami was sentenced to more than four years in prison for illegally smuggling sculptures containing ivory both within and outside of the United States and for obstructing authorities’ investigation after being caught at Miami International Airport with ivory in his luggage.
In the UK, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs recently moved to expand its ban on the import and sale of items containing elephant ivory to cover five more animals—hippos, sperm whales, narwhals, orcas and walruses—much to the consternation of antique dealers who trade in items containing such materials. The European Commission has also recently upgraded its regulation of the ivory trade.