Despite the announcement by the US administration that some of the rules protecting African elephant ivory would be relaxed to make musicians’ traveling easier, the Budapest Festival Orchestra had seven of its bows seized at John F. Kennedy International Airport, forcing the players to use borrowed bows at their concerts at Lincoln Center.
An orchestra spokesman said that the orchestra had gotten documentation for each bow, with photographs and letters from bow makers stating that they did not contain any banned ivory. It looks like the Obama administration overacted.
