The Vung Tau wreck, named after the port near which it was discovered, was found by fishermen off the islands of Con Dao in the south of Vietnam, when they retrieved porcelain items that had caught in their nets.
Master mariner, Sverker Hallstrom who had good relations with the Vietnamese government, obtained the license to excavate the wreck after the Vietnam Salvage Corporation had carried out preliminary excavation, and Australian Michael Flecker directed the primary excavation for Hallstrom in 1991.
Experts surmised that the ship was bound from China to Batavia (now Jakarta) circa 1690, where the bulk of the ceramics would have been trans-shipped to a Dutch East India Company vessel for the onward voyage to Holland.
The salvage operation recovered over 48,000 ceramics items, mostly Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain, an impressive collection of white-ware, many pieces of provincial ware, and a wide variety of
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ship related artefacts.
Christie's auction house selected 28,000 pieces of porcelain for auction in Amsterdam, and the sale raised $US 7.3 million. A full representation of the ceramics and most of the artefacts were put on display in the Vung Tau Museum, whilst the remainder of the ceramics, mostly damaged to some extent, were divided between Hallstrom and the Vietnamese Government.
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