Virgin and Child, Paris, about 1260. Ivory, with silver crown made in the 1800s, 44.45 x 11.75 x 10.8 cm. Bequest of Charles Phelps Taft and Anna Sinton Taft, 1931.319 © Taft Museum 

In this ivory sculpture, the infant Jesus gestures toward a rose held by his mother. He grasps a sphere, likely representing an apple or an orb, both symbols associated with Christ. Originally housed in the abbey church of Saint-Denis, the burial place of French kings and queens, the sculpture once stood among three ivory angels honoring and crowning the Virgin. In 1794, French revolutionaries seized the abbey’s treasures, destroying or selling them. Remarkably, this fragile sculpture survived, and is now considered one of the most important medieval ivories in the world.

For millennia, skilled artisans have carved sacred objects like this one out of ivory tusks from African elephants. By the early 1900s, the proliferation of items such as hair combs, piano keys, and pool balls made from ivory led to the fast decline of the species. In 1800, an estimated 26 million African elephants roamed the savannahs. Only 600,000 remained by 1989, when the species was declared endangered, instituting a ban on international ivory sales. Despite this and more recent bans, persistent poaching still threatens elephant populations, and the United States remains one of the largest markets for illegal ivory.