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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;komokwa, post: 348650, member: 301&quot;]<font size="6"><b>Authorities suspect art dealer of being an illegal tusk master</b></font></p><p>Sun | Local</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The Associated Press and Sun staff</b> — <a href="https://web.kitsapsun.com/archive/2004/08-19/index.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://web.kitsapsun.com/archive/2004/08-19/index.html" rel="nofollow">Aug 19th, 2004</a></p><p><br /></p><p>A globe-trotting art dealer from Bali who authorities allege took ancient animal remains illegally from government land near the Arctic Circle and sold them to undercover agents was arrested this week in, of all places, Poulsbo.</p><p><br /></p><p>William Sidmore, 52, of Bali is being held on charges of illegal trafficking in elephant, walrus and woolly mammoth ivory, much of it in carvings. He also is suspected of trafficking the teeth of endangered bears, authorities said.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sidmore, who grew up in Alaska, was arrested Tuesday at his storage locker at North Kitsap Self Storage in Poulsbo after a 14-month investigation by Fish and Wildlife Service agents, according to an affidavit by agent Jill Birchell.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sidmore was believed to be preparing to leave for Bali, Birchell wrote. Dennis Raymond, a friend with whom he had been staying in Seattle, said Sidmore mentioned that he was about to fly back to Indonesia.</p><p><br /></p><p>He faces a detention hearing today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma after being indicted by a federal grand jury in Anchorage, Alaska, authorities said.</p><p><br /></p><p>The charges include smuggling, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and the theft of federal property, punishable by up to 10 years.</p><p><br /></p><p>According to the affidavit, Fish and Wildlife agent Sam Jojola was posing as an ivory buyer in Fairbanks, Alaska, in June 2003 when he learned that Sidmore was also in town and was offering carvings from Bali for sale.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sidmore, who reportedly moved to Bali 10 years ago, showed Jojola a mammoth tusk he said he had found on Bureau of Land Management land in Alaska, Birchell wrote.</p><p><br /></p><p>He also offered for sale for $10,000 a carving he said he had made for his students in Bali from the tusk of a narwhal, an Arctic whale with a long spiral tusk, which he described as the &quot;rarest ivory in the world,&quot; according to the affidavit.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sidmore said he made the carving from a 10-foot tusk he found in two pieces &quot;in the sand along the Bering Strait,&quot; Birchell wrote.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;It&#039;s still in storage in, uh, Poulsbo near Seattle,&quot; Sidmore allegedly told Jojola during an Aug. 9 phone conversation mentioned in the affidavit. &quot;So I&#039;ll pull that out when I get back.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>He told the agent that in his career he&#039;d only found three Narwhal tusks, the document said.</p><p><br /></p><p>He also said he had &quot;a quarter million dollars worth&quot; of stock in storage in Washington state, &quot;big Rubbermaid tubs filled with ivory&quot; such as carvings from walrus and elephant tusks and the teeth of grizzly and sun bears, according to the affidavit.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Sun was unable to contact U.S. Attorneys in Alaska to determine what and how much suspected illegal ivory was confiscated from the Poulsbo unit.</p><p><br /></p><p>Uh oh....!!![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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