/ARTS WEEKLY/VIETNAM: Illegal Traders in Antiques Beware, Officials Say

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Tran Dinh Thanh Lam

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Apr 13 2004 (IPS) - Illegal traders in antiques beware – that seems to be the message the ministry in charge of cultural heritage is sending by instructing genuine collectors to register their collections at local departments of culture and information.

”I know that not many countries have this kind of regulation and it will not be easy to get these registrations, but it is being done for a good reason,” said Nguyen The Hung, head of the department for relics management under the Ministry of Culture and Information (MoCI).

The registration would only be an initial step toward setting up a comprehensive list of valuable antiquities to help customs offices reduce illicit trade. ”The secret market for trading antiques has been developing in Vietnam for many years and there is no sign of it coming under control,” Hung said.

In the past 20 years, the illegal export of Vietnamese antiques to international market has mushroomed. Demand for antiquities has increased rapidly due to strong growth in tourism. Robbery and smuggling of antiques have also increased.

Robbers haven taken away invaluable ancient Buddha statues from many temples and pagodas in northern Vietnam – the Tay Phuong Pagoda and Hai Ba Trung Temple in Ha Tay province, But Thap Pagoda in Bac Ninh and Bien Son Pagoda in Vinh Phuc.

Thieves have also gone to archaeological sites to hunt for antiques – in Oc Eo in southern An Giang province, Lang Vac in central Nghe An, Cat Tien in Highland’s Lam Dong, Dong Thech in northern Hoa Binh- or sinking old vessels near Cu Lao Cham islet, Ca Mau and Kien Giang southern provinces. The Vietnamese Customs Office says that since 2000, it has uncovered 16 serious cases of stolen antiquities on their way to overseas markets. The office did not have a total number for the stolen antiquities illegally traded overseas.

The registration of antiques would help officials know the number and the value of antiques owned by private collectors, something that so far remains unknown. It would also help officials to hand back lost items to their owners.

There are cases where police and customs officials did not know the place of origin of the seized items, and had to keep them at ”lost and found” warehouses of local museums. A museum in the southern province of Loc Ninh is currently keeping three Buddha statues that bear typical features of those venerated in North Vietnam. They were probably stolen from a pagoda in the Red River Delta and smuggled to the Mekong River Delta, on their way to markets overseas.

”If owners had registered all items in their collections, officials could have the necessary conditions to return their lost items,” Hung said.

A recent inventory by the ministry revealed that Vietnam has around 2.5 million antiquities, which are on show and for preservation in national museums. Unofficial estimates say private collectors could hold more than a million antiques, many of which are believed to be extremely rare.

Last year, antique merchants and collectors asked culture ministry officials to set up an antique assessment centre to curb the blackmarket trade in antiques. They said the underground antique trade flourished unchecked and created wild price fluctuations.

”It’s very difficult for buyers to distinguish between a true antique from a restored one or a counterfeit,” said Pham Quoc Quan, director of the Vietnam History Museum. A European tourist bought last year a 10-year-old 4th century jar for 16,000 U.S. dollars, while its true value is just five or 10 dollars.

”Forgers have discouraged antique lovers from collecting valuable antiques. At the same time, they have created favourable conditions for knowledgeable foreign collectors to buy true antiques from Vietnam,” Quan said.

Establishing an antique assessment centre would be instrumental for a legal market of antiques, he added. Hung said the state budget would cover the cost of assessing artifacts’ ages.

But some antique experts and collectors have expressed reservations about the culture ministry’s ambitious programme of setting up assessment centres nationwide.

”This is a very complex job, requiring officials that have high-level of understanding and expertise on antiques,” said Dang Van Thang, vice director of the Ho Chi Minh City Museum. ”Not all local cultural officials could have such understanding and expertise, and therefore their conclusion could be ambiguous, not to say erroneous.”

The best way is to establish some assessment centres in Hanoi, Hue and this city, Thang said. Equipped with equipment like X-ray machines and spectrometre, and employing specialists from different regions, historical periods and media, the centres will examine and assess antiques for all clients, keep records of antiques, and thus put national treasures under better management.

Tran Ngoc Doi from Phu Nhuan district in Ho Chi Minh City said he would heartily register antiques handed down from his ancestors, so that he could sell them legally and at a reasonable price.

However, many private collectors say they do not want to have their collections registered. ”Many items have not a clear origin, and owners fear the government could confiscate them,” said a famous artifact collector here who asked not to be named.

Hung said the culture ministry would not seize precious artifacts but would consider artifacts that have signatures proving their ownership by the state. ”We will propose that the prime minister issue certification for those special valuable properties,” Hung said.

”When the sale of antiques becomes official, owners of registered antiques could sell them legally,” Hung added. The laws on cultural heritage, established in early 2002, actually protect the sale, exchange, and transfer of antiques.

Still, one collector here in HCMC is unconvinced. ”What happens if after registration, one of my antiques is considered cultural heritage? Could I still own it? Could I sell it?”

”We would probably not make our most valuable collections public, especially as the regulation was not compulsory,” he concluded.