VIETNAM (6 Mar 2004) -- Rare porcelain recovered from a shipwreck off Vietnam after 400 years has been sold for more than A$2 million dollars (S$2.57 million) in Australia, auction house Christie's said on Thursday. Christie's said the Ming dynasty ceramics were recovered from the Chinese junk Binh Thuan, which sank off southern Vietnam in 1608. Christie's spokeswoman Julie King said the auction of more than 17,000 pieces retrieved from the wreck in 2002 attracted bids from around the world, including France, Italy and Germany. 'There was incredible interest,' Ms King said. 'There's something about the romance of a shipwreck that really captures people's imagination. It's about people wanting to own a piece of history.' The auction raised a total of US$2.1 million, more than doubling Christie's initial estimates. Historians believe the junk belonged to a Chinese merchant called I Sin Ho and was taking the porcelain to Malaysia when it struck a coral reef. The junk contained bolts of silk, cast iron pots and ceramics from southern China. About half of the ceramics cargo was glazed blue and white china ware known as Swatow style from the late Ming dynasty, the rest was unglazed and had been ruined by its centuries on the seabed. | | Snag a net, take a 40-meter dive, surface with US $2.1 million. The junk lay undisturbed in 40 metres of water until a fishing boat snagged its nets on the wreckage in 2001 and a diver went down to investigate the problem. SOURCE - AFP |
