The item in question was a tusk mounted on silver, which was priced at between $1,750 and $2,600 (1,200 and 1,800 pounds), according to The Telegraph. A 63-year-old silver dealer named Barry Collins brought the tusk to London-based Christie’s claiming to have found it in a loft after his mother died.

This week at a London court, Christie’s admitted to selling the ivory in violation of EU law and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, a treaty that sets policy for the trade in wildlife and stringently regulates the trade in ivory to protect the poaching of elephants for their prized tusks.

“The tusk in this case was mounted on silver but was basically a raw, unmodified elephant tusk