Nearly two tons of ivory worth about $8 million was destroyed at the “Ivory Crush” event, which was timed to precede World Elephant Day on Aug. 12.
The carvings were confiscated in recent ivory busts in New York. They once belonged on the faces of a least 100 slaughtered elephants.
“By crushing a ton of ivory in the middle of the world’s most famous public park, New Yorkers are sending a message to poachers, traffickers and dealers who try to set up shop right here on our streets,” Mr. Calvelli said in the statement. “We won’t stand for the slaughter of elephants. Nobody needs an ivory brooch that badly.”
In 2014, New York was among the first states to prohibit the sale, purchase, trade or distribution of items made from elephant and mammoth ivory and rhinoceros horns.
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