サルベージの合法化　アラブの船

２０００年に紀元１０世紀の沈没船がインドネシアで発見されました。遺物は主に中国産の陶磁器、そして宝石類(ラピスラズリなど）です。この船はアラビア半島で作られたと考えられており、船員もムスリム商人だったと想定できます。中国の船は東南アジアに進出するのは１２世紀ごろでそれまではインド・アラビアからの船が中国まで赴き貿易をしていました。この沈没船は当時の物質文化、貿易のメカニズムなどを知る手がかりになります。

ただし、ひとつ問題があります。この沈没船の遺物がオークションで売られるからです。インドネシア政府は収益の半分をサルベージ会社とシェアすることが決められています。＄４０，０００，０００ほどの収益が見込まれています。これらの遺物が売られれば今後の調査などがほとんどできないことになります。しかし、インドネシア政府はこれらの遺物に証明書をつけて正式に沈没船から引き上げられて調査されたもののみを売却できることにしたそうです。これにより、政府が関与していない沈没船から引き上げられた遺物はすべて非合法となるため、基本的にはインドネシア政府が決めるスタンダードの元で発掘調査？が行われます。このため泥棒のように沈没船を荒らすとレジャーハンターはある程度少なくなるでしょうが、遺物が売られるのは同じことです。またこれによりスタンダードの高い考古学調査よりサルベージが増えることになるでしょう。

Rubies, Ceramics 1,000 Years Old for Sale: Contact Indonesia

By Claire Leow

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) — Indonesia is putting as many as 250,000 treasures up for auction, salvaged from a 10th-century shipwreck off the island of Java.

Rubies and sapphires, glass ornaments with Arabic inscriptions, and ceramics from China’s Five Dynasties period may fetch as much as $40 million, the government estimates. Rarest of all may be the first certificates of authentication to be issued by Indonesia, which started cracking down on modern-day pirates looting its wreck-rich waters in 2000.

Historians and archaeologists are demanding the government preserve the wreck’s contents, along with remains of the Arabian- style dhow in which they were discovered, as a single collection for future study.

“If this goes to private auction, it can fetch maybe $50,000,” Peter Schwarz, 49, a ceramics specialist from Bad Koenigshofen, Germany, said of a pale green covered bowl with two ducks carved on the lid. “But the collection must stay together. In this room, we have history.”

Schwarz, who has spent 18 months curating the collection in preparation for the sale, also points out bronze statues from Indonesia, Thai earthenware and a single piece of Persian pottery identified by a patch of turquoise glaze.

Indonesia will rely on an auctioneer such as Christie’s International for advice on what should be sold, said Aji Sularso, a spokesman for the Maritime Affairs & Fisheries Ministry. The government plans to reserve 10 percent of the 76,000 items recovered intact for its museums.

Singapore, Dubai Buyers

“If it has more economic value than historical value, there is no need to take it for our heritage museums,” Sularso said. “The government’s strategy is to choose the auction house that offers the highest price.”

The Singapore Tourism Board, Shanghai Museum and a broker in Dubai are interested in the collection, said Adi Agung, chairman of Indonesian salvage company PT Paradigma Putra Sejahtera. He has worked with Swiss partner Cosmix Underwater Research Ltd. since 2004 to raise the treasure from 57 meters (187 feet).

Chen Kelun, vice director of the Shanghai Museum, and Rostam Umar, a spokesman for the tourism board, said they weren’t in talks to bid. Harry Babikian, managing director of Harco Marketing & Trading, was traveling in China and couldn’t be contacted.

Rhiannon Broomfield, spokeswoman for Christie’s International in London, said the auctioneer hasn’t been hired for the sale. New York-based Sotheby’s didn’t reply to e-mailed questions.

“My objective is that the collection stays together and researchers have access to them — over 50, 60 years,” said Luc Heymans, a managing director at Cosmix.

10th-Century Mystery

Salvagers will split the sale proceeds 50-50 with Indonesia.

The ship sank off Cirebon, a port on Java’s north coast, while traveling from the Hindu Sriwijaya kingdom in Sumatra to East Java, then a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom in the making.

Cirebon was among the first Indonesian destinations reached by Muslim traders. Historians had dated the arrival of Islam, now the nation’s dominant religion, to the 12th century.

The cargo may solve the mystery of why 10th-century Javanese kings moved from central Java to east Java, said John Miksic, a maritime historian at the National University of Singapore.

Increasing trade from China may have been one reason, Miksic said. Still, the glassware, possibly from what is now Syria, indicates Islamic clerics may have been on board, he said.

`Vital Insights’

Also salvaged was about two tons of lapis lazuli, a blue stone with gold flecks prized in Persian art.

“A shipwreck is a snapshot in time,” Miksic said. “The precise nature of the cargo, the mix of commodities, would give us vital insights into the nature of commerce at this period.”

Michael Flecker, a marine archeologist and managing director of Maritime Explorations (Malaysia) Sdn., said the ship itself may help unlock historical puzzles. The bulk of the wreck and about 250,000 fragments of cargo remain undersea.

“We keep finding Chinese cargoes and yet no Chinese vessels came until the 12th and 13th centuries,” Flecker said. “Why did the Chinese supply the cargo but not the ships?”

Flecker worked on the last major wreck salvaged from Indonesian waters, in 1998. Cargo from the ninth-century dhow included 60,000 pieces of Chinese Tang Dynasty ceramics, gold and silverware.

The Singapore government’s Sentosa Leisure Group bought that collection for $32 million in 2004 from the German salvager. The salvage company had paid Indonesia $2.5 million for its half of the cargo, said Sularso, the ministry spokesman.

Illegally Salvaged

“In the past, items were not properly valued,” Sularso said. “Now we’re trying to be transparent and accountable.”

As part of that process, the government will issue certificates of authentication for items sold in this auction, blocking future claims that they were illegally salvaged.

“That alone will raise the value of the cargo,” said Agung, 39, the Indonesian salvage partner.

In a shed near Jakarta, curator Schwarz poked through crates filled with items tied with raffia and tagged. A Tang Dynasty bronze mirror adorned with parrots and orchids is the prize item, he said. Earthenware is still being treated to remove 1,000-year- old crusts of salt.

“This is the first project where things are properly done,” Schwarz said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Claire Leow in Jakarta at cleow@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: November 14, 2006 12:14 EST

引用元：http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aSHV6Zb9pDeU