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Shipwreck sale slammed
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CHINESE archaeologists have recently accused a British man by the name of Michel Hartcher of being "immoral" for auctioning off 350,000 pieces of porcelain obtained from a sunken Chinese merchant ship in the South China Sea, a Shenzhen Commercial Daily reported said on Friday.
Hartcher was urged by Chinese archaeologists to consult with the source country, namely China, on how to dispose of the porcelain, along with other valuable items found in May, 1999, the report said. All the porcelain was made in Dehua, one of the three porcelain capitals in China during the 18th and 19th century.
Harcher reportedly auctioned off all the 350,000 pieces of porcelain from November 17 to 25 last year, fetching a price as high as DM22.4 million.
Heated debate over whether Hartcher should sell the cultural relics he obtained from the Chinese merchant ship has been going on for months before Chinese archaeologists filed a protest to the relevant international organization.
"This is not the first time that Hartcher has done such a thing," said Zhang Wei, one of the gurus in China who specializes in underwater archaeology, outraged. "Though we are still not sure about whether these porcelain were found in the high sea or within the territorial waters of a certain country, the immorality of (Harcher's activity) is self-evident."
The UN Marine Convention formulated in 1982 stipulates that all the cultural relics of great archaeological and historic significance found either outside the jurisdiction or in the territory of a certain country should be protected and handled in the interest of the whole mankind, relics experts said. Special attention must be paid to the priority of the source country (in cultural, historical or archaeological sense) in handling these relics, according to the UN convention.(SD News)
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