- May 20, 2004
- 1,721
- 152
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Excal 1000
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Jakarta, Dec 19: Indonesia is putting as many as 250,000 treasures up for auction that were salvaged from a 10th-century shipwreck off the island of Java.
Rubies and sapphires, glass ornaments with Arabic inscriptions, and ceramics from China's Five Dynasties period may fetch as much as USD 40 million, the government estimates. Rarest of all may be the first certificates of authentication to be issued by Indonesia, which started cracking down on modern-day pirates looting its wreck-rich waters in 2000.
Historians and archaeologists are demanding that the government preserve the wreck's contents, along with remains of the Arabian-style dhow in which they were discovered, as a single collection for future study.
"If this goes to private auction, it can fetch maybe $50,000," Peter Schwarz, 49, a ceramics specialist from Bad Königshofen, Germany, said of a pale green covered bowl with two ducks carved on the lid. "But the collection must stay together. In this room, we have history."
Rubies and sapphires, glass ornaments with Arabic inscriptions, and ceramics from China's Five Dynasties period may fetch as much as USD 40 million, the government estimates. Rarest of all may be the first certificates of authentication to be issued by Indonesia, which started cracking down on modern-day pirates looting its wreck-rich waters in 2000.
Historians and archaeologists are demanding that the government preserve the wreck's contents, along with remains of the Arabian-style dhow in which they were discovered, as a single collection for future study.
"If this goes to private auction, it can fetch maybe $50,000," Peter Schwarz, 49, a ceramics specialist from Bad Königshofen, Germany, said of a pale green covered bowl with two ducks carved on the lid. "But the collection must stay together. In this room, we have history."