The Ivory Act 2018 creates narrow and carefully defined exemptions to the ban for:
Items with only a small amount of ivory. Such items must comprise less than 10% ivory by volume and have been made prior to 1947.
Musical instruments. These must have an ivory content of less than 20% by volume and have been made prior to 1975.
Portrait miniatures. A specific exemption for portrait miniatures – which were often painted on thin slivers of ivory – made before 1918 and with a surface area of no more than 320cm2.
Sales to and hire agreements with qualifying museums.
The rarest and most important items of their type. These must be items of outstanding artistic, cultural or historic value, and made prior to 1918. Decisions on applications for such items will be based on expert advice from a selection of institutions deemed to have the necessary knowledge and expertise.