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Message:: [QUOTE="Lucille.b, post: 22926, member: 51"]Some of you might recall that I was helping a friend with a large set (50) miniature 19th century portraits from India. These are painted on thin 2 1/2 inch ovals of ivory. They remain unsold, it was kind of an interesting process. We contacted Christies, sent photos, (I was told by phone that they had a $10K minimum in certain categories).  Heard back after 4 weeks, these did not make the cut. I wound up contacting Bonhams, sent photos and 2 weeks later got a phone call that started with, "We've got some good news/bad news". They were interested, and placed an estimate of $4-6K on the set, but their advice was to hold on to them because without a copy of the original import papers (in this case would have been from the mid-1800's) they could not accept them.  Was told this was a change from the Fish and Wildlife department on endangered species, spring of 2014. The Bonhams rep even added that we could not donate these to a museum without that documentation, which we did not have. I wound up giving the group back to my friend, who I think is going to hold on to them.[/QUOTE]