Editor's note: In recent days, the news that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has received the transfer of the Emperor's Golden Seal - a treasure of the Nguyen Dynasty - and brought the seal back from Paris, France to Vietnam has attracted public attention. It can be seen that preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage is a contribution to cultural revival and building a prosperous country. One of them is promoting the value and worth of antiques.
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The Emperor's Golden Seal - a royal treasure of the Nguyen Dynasty - has been successfully "returned home" |
The more familiar, the easier to sell.
In Chapter I, Article 4 of the Law on Cultural Heritage, it is clearly stated that: “A relic is an object handed down, having historical, cultural, and scientific value” and “An antique is an object handed down, having typical historical, cultural, and scientific value, and being one hundred years old or older”. However, in reality, few people care about this concept. When referring to items that are several decades old or older, buyers and sellers immediately call them antiques or antiques. The abuse of the concept for trading and price inflation is still rampant, from direct stores to online antique trading groups.
Mr. NT Hoang (37 years old, salesman, living in Thu Duc City) posted an ad for sale of his entire antique collection in a buying and selling group on social networks. In less than a week, the collection of more than 100 items with all kinds of dishes, ceramic vases, tea sets; coins; pens... was successfully closed, with many comments regretting not being able to buy in time. Mr. Hoang shared: “I have been playing with antiques for more than 10 years, I can say I am familiar with the industry, so transactions are easy. In this profession, buying and selling is mainly based on each other's reputation, there is no insurance, if there is an incident in the future, we will call each other to find a satisfactory solution for each other.”
Le Cong Kieu Street (District 1) is famous for being an antique shopping street in Ho Chi Minh City. There are nearly 20 antique shops here. It once attracted collectors and international visitors, to the point of being called “Antique Street”. However, if you look at the business license, there are no antique shops here, but mainly handicraft and souvenir shops.
Mr. TH, the owner of a souvenir and art shop here, said: “If we say it is an antique, who will appraise it and who will believe it? I often cooperate with some museums in the city to exhibit, but I put out 20 items, the museum only chooses 10 to display. This is normal. The person who specializes in buying and selling has the experience of a business person, and the museum has their professional experience. We are all antique collectors, but each person has a different personal experience when choosing to buy and valuing an item.”
Art researcher NGO KIM KHOI: We need a basic and well-organized market to determine the right value and worth.
Some auction houses contacted me directly, such as Christie's or most recently Millon - the owner of the Imperial Seal - a treasure of the Nguyen Dynasty, have also worked with me and they wish to have a trading floor in Vietnam. Through many discussions and exchanges, they see that the Vietnamese market has great potential and will develop well in the coming period.
However, what they are hesitant about is that the basic legal framework and mechanism to form a professional market are still not specific. Therefore, it is very difficult to publicize a painting or an antique. Some domestic units have previously opened auction floors for paintings and antiques. However, due to lack of experience and professional capacity, many items are inflated in price compared to reality, causing collectors to lose confidence.
Have goods but no source
For many years, state management agencies have encouraged the registration of relics, antiques, and treasures to be protected by the State and supported in preservation, but not many collectors and owners are interested in this policy. The reason, according to many people in the antique collectors community, is the fear of difficulty in proving the legal origin of the items they own.
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Royal court artifacts on display at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History |
Antiques must be items of historical, cultural, aesthetic and economic value, at least 100 years old. Having gone through war and many ups and downs in life, proving the legal origin of many artifacts is not easy, even... impossible.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, former Deputy Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, said that previously, the removal of the regulation that "collecting antiquities must have a license from the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism" had encouraged individuals and organizations to collect relics and antiquities. Since then, many private collections and private museums have been established, including many collections of valuable antiquities originating from archaeological sites (underground, underwater).
However, because of this, when the "underground" trading and trading market is bustling, violations in the exploration and excavation of antiquities such as digging and stealing relics and antiquities at archaeological sites become more common. There are cases when authorities discover and confiscate antiquities dug underground or salvaged from the sea but cannot handle them and must return them to the "collectors". Because the law does not stipulate the conditions for collecting antiquities, there is also no evidence of illegal digging for antiquities.
Moreover, some archaeologists were indignant and said that there were relics that had just been discovered the day before, but when they returned the next day, the thieves had taken everything. For example, in Binh Chau (Quang Ngai), the day before they discovered the relics, they assigned someone to look after them, but when they returned the next day, they found it empty. Because, when they heard the news, the thieves dived deep underwater and took everything.
For antique collectors, most rely on personal experience and reputation to close a deal, so checking the origin of an item sometimes becomes unnecessary and unimportant. “People look to buy what they like or for investment purposes, waiting for the price to increase to resell. Buyers also rely on their experience, except for gemstones that have appraisal centers, but for items such as ceramic cups, plates, royal decrees, and signatures, they completely rely on each other's experience and reputation to make transactions. No one takes the item to a center or asks reputable museums to help appraise it, or investigates its origin, they only trust their own choices and consult with friends in the industry,” Mr. TH added.
It is because of personal appraisal based on experience and reputation that many antiques become “delicious bait” for businesses to inflate their prices to “surf” the market price. And there are also valuable and valuable items but they are completely “inanimate” because few people have recognized their true nature.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has just organized a conference - workshop to collect comments on the Draft Law on Cultural Heritage (amended). Many opinions at the workshop concerned about heritage and also raised issues such as: Currently, national treasures are ranked and recognized, displayed at museums or state units, only statistics, checking the current status, preservation solutions... There is absolutely no way to convert the value into a specific number of national treasures. In the case that the display and preservation unit causes damage, theft or swapping... then based on the law, how will it be handled specifically, what is the penalty framework?
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