Rhino Horns in Museums = Endangered!

Rhino head in England's Museum of Natural History in Tring after the theft of a replica (!) horn

This is a topic that I almost feel tempted to write about on my art history blog, since it deals with museums and crime. But since the target of theft has been natural history museums, I thought I would write about it here.

This past weekend I recently read a little blurb in a recent National Geographic about the rising theft of rhino horns from museums (February 2012, p. 21). In the first eight months of 2011, thieves broke into multiple museums, a zoo, an auction house, and even a Czech castle. Apparently, rhino horns are fetching prices on the black market that rival that of gold or cocaine, partially because of an Asian rumor that the horns can cure cancer. The demand for horns has is driving thieves to do pretty desperate things. In some instances, the thieves have made off with 200-pound mounted heads!

Luckily, due to the rise of thefts, the Museum of National History in Tring had replaced their rhino horns with replicas out of resin (and therefore held no commercial value). The missing horn in the image above was a fake! Other museums have been advised to hide their rhinos or install replicas, too.

What does this mean for the future of rhinos (in zoos or in display cases)? National Geographic grimly notes that "postmortem poachers are making the imperiled species an imperiled specimen as well" (February 2012, p. 21).

Here's another article in the New York Times on the same subject, if you are interested.