September 21, 2000

Historic Vietnamese Treasure to be Sold by Butterfields Auctioneers And Online at eBay

Shipwreck Discovery Redefines Vietnamese Art History and Opens Unprecedented Opportunity to Buyers Worldwide

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- eBay(R) (NASDAQ:EBAY), the world's leading online trading community, and Butterfields Auctioneers, an eBay Company, today announced previews and sale dates of "Treasures from the Hoi An Hoard." The long-lost treasure from an ancient shipwreck found off the coast of Vietnam consists of extremely rare late-fifteenth/early-sixteenth century Vietnamese ceramic artifacts. The artifacts will be sold at auction by Butterfields and available online through eBay Great Collections.
The Hoi An shipwreck contained a precious cargo of over 150,000 Vietnamese blue and white ceramics that display a richness of form and decoration previously unknown to art historians and scholars of the period. The recovery of the Hoi An ship's cargo is believed to redefine the art-historical relationship between Vietnam and China, enlarge knowledge of fifteenth/sixteenth century Asian trade, and revolutionize the scholarship and understanding of Vietnamese ceramics.
Through a precedent-setting agreement, unique objects from the shipwreck have been retained by the National History Museum in Hanoi for the people of Vietnam, with another 10% of the cargo dispersed among more than 100 regional museums. The vast remainder of the rare and important blue and white figural ceramics, has been consigned to Butterfields by the Vietnamese government and Saga Horizon, the Malaysian salvage company which handled the recovery process.
"The Vietnamese government took a positive and productive approach to dispersing the huge trove of ceramics. Retaining the pieces for the National History Museum in Hanoi preserves these artifacts of Vietnamese culture within Vietnam for scholars to study and museum visitors to enjoy, while the public sale of the remaining pieces offers other world class institutions and private collectors the opportunity to acquire representative objects from the lost ship's cargo," said Louise Cort, curator for ceramics at Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution.

Preview & Sale Details

Butterfields will host the live auction in its San Francisco showroom, October 11, 12, and 13. eBay's new Live Auctions feature will be available for this showroom auction event to allow real-time online bidding from the eBay Great Collections site. Additionally, a large portion of the collection will be available online through eBay Great Collections starting October 14. Previews of the rare ceramics will be held September 14-22 in New York City, September 23-25 in Los Angeles, and October 5-10 in San Francisco.
In preparation for the series of sales to be conducted both live and online, the entire Hoi An collection of approximately 150,000 individual items has been sorted by archaeologists according to type and condition. The cargo includes hundreds of barbed-rim dishes, pouring vessels, bottles, jars, cups, bowls, figural ceramics, and boxes -- all painted with mythological animals or landscape scenes. Within a type, some examples retain their original lustrous glazes unaltered by centuries in the sea. Other examples show various degrees of degradation, but are a marvel nonetheless at affordable prices.
"The offering of such a vast and superb archaeological discovery is an important event to us at Butterfields and eBay," said Geoff Iddison, general manager of eBay Great Collections and Butterfields Auctioneers. "By having a live Butterfields auction, real-time online bidding through new Live Auctions technology, and the online sale on eBay Great Collections, we are making these rare ceramics available to the world."

Discovery and Recovery

The ceramic artifacts began to appear in 1993 when local fisherman found pieces caught in their nets. After the importance of the discovery was established, the Vietnamese government intervened and sought assistance to locate the source. The shipwreck containing the treasures was located off the coast of Hoi An, Vietnam, in the South China Sea typhoon zone known as the "Dragon Sea." The heavily laden ship went down in the late fifteenth/early sixteenth century, after a period of diminished production of blue and white porcelain at the Chinese imperial kilns due to the Ming government's activity to discourage private overseas trade. The size and fine quality of the cargo is evidence that the northern kilns near modern-day Hanoi quickly expanded to fill the Chinese production gap and meet the great demand in Southeast Asian markets for high quality ceramics.
Adding to the lore of "Treasures from the Hoi An Hoard" is the dramatic story of the recovery itself. Saga Horizon utilized cutting-edge sonar and aquasounder technologies to track the shipwreck, while free divers risked their lives in 220 feet of water to recover the objects. Unable to use standard diving and decompression practices at that depth, the diving team was forced to live in small, pressurized diving bells for months at a time. At one point, a typhoon loomed near and threatened to destroy the expedition.
"The sale of 'Treasures from the Hoi An Hoard' will put Vietnamese ceramics on the map," said Dessa Goddard director of Butterfields' Asian Art Department. "Although the market for Chinese porcelain is long established, little Vietnamese porcelain has been sold to the west. The discovery of Hoi An ceramics presents individuals an opportunity to own a piece of history."
For additional information please visit the "Treasures from the Hoi An Hoard" Website at http://www.hoianhoard.com or http://butterfields.com . Digital images and slides available to the media.
Contact: Jennie Prebor, Vice-President of FITZ & CO, 212-627-1455, ext. 232 or artpr@fitzandco.com; or D. Levi Morgan, Director of Public Relations of Butterfields Auctioneers, 415-503-3348, or Lmorgan@butterfields.com; or Jennifer Chu, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications of eBay Inc., 408-558-7432, or jchu@ebay.com

Southwest's missions struggle to fend off art thieves

Seventeenth-century statues are disappearing, and along with them, pieces of cultural history.

Scott Baldauf (baldaufs@csps.com)
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
Late on the night of July 31, the robbers arrived at Mission San Juan Capistrano, armed with drills, crowbars, and flashlights. Their goal: to steal three 17th-century statues from the Spanish mission's altar. Whoever they were, the robbers clearly knew what they were doing. They drilled holes in the mission's wooden door, which allowed them to lift a crossbar on the other side. They walked straight to the altar, took the three statues, and carried them off in a two-wheel cart to their car in a nearby parking lot, where the gate wasn't locked.
The value of the statues is estimated to be anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 combined. The police have no suspects and very few leads.
"There's a market for these things across the world," says Officer Al Ballew, spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department. "This was not a normal burglar. They knew where these things were, they went in, they got them, and they left."
Sadly, the theft at Mission San Juan Capistrano, a better-looking cousin of the historic Alamo mission in downtown San Antonio, was not an isolated incident. The Mission Concepcíon, just a few miles away from Mission San Juan has also reported the theft of a priceless statue recently, and several Spanish missions in California have also reported the theft of religious art, including a tabernacle door. It's a sign that no church is too sacred, and no act too callous, in the sometimes lawless world of antiquities.
"The church is just starting to realize she's been sitting on a gold mine," says Brother Edward Loch, archivist for the Roman Catholic archdiocese of San Antonio. "We are being targeted for thefts. The church has always taken these items as objects of devotion, but now we're saying, 'Wait a minute, they're artistic items.' And we have had no conception of what people are willing to pay for them."
To prevent further thefts, the archdiocese has installed motion detectors in each of its missions, all of which were built between 1720 and 1731, and has hired a security company to monitor those devices 24 hours a day.
Because the five missions of San Antonio are co-managed by the National Park Service, in an unusual relationship started in 1983, park rangers are able to provide security during the day.
But in many ways, the security is arriving too late: the most valuable items have already been taken.
"We're closing the barn after the horses are already gone," says one church official.
Signs of the break-in at the Mission San Juan Capistrano are still visible today. The large, elaborately carved oak door still has holes and splinters where thieves rammed it open. Three podiums behind the altar, once home to statues of Saint Joseph, San Juan Capistrano, and Saint Francis of Assisi are now occupied temporarily by potted plants.
A statue of the Virgin Mary, the last remaining 17th-century Spanish statue in the mission, stands off in a corner, dressed in a hand-stitched white satin gown made by one of the parishioners, staring forlornly up at the high wood-beam ceiling.
"As far as statues go, a statue is a statue; they're only there to remind us of the heroes of the faith," says the Rev. Jim Galvin, pastor of Mission San Juan Capistrano. "People are more important."

more and photographs:
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/09/20/fp3s1-csm.shtml

From: "Tom Reeve" editor@securitypark.co.uk
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

Monet theft in Poland

Date sent: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 18:31:33 +0100
I was interested to read your e-mail bulletin about the Monet theft.
Is this kind of deception a common ruse, or is this unique in your view?
Thanks, Tom
Tom Reeve
editor@securitypark.co.uk
Tel 020 7470 2424
Fax 020 7559 3588
www.securitypark.co.uk