Binh Dinh owns many valuable and rare antiques which possess extremely original features. Do any of the antiques meet criteria of the national precious objects? That’s still an unpredicted matter.
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Relief of Hindu Goddess Sarasvati dated 12th-13th century is one of the two most beautiful Champa reliefs exhibiting at Binh Dinh Museum. The province once nominated it for the government’s recognition as the national precious object. Photo by B.P
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* Making a draft circular with detailed instructions
The National Cultural Heritage Department once laid down as a policy the selection of the national precious objects from all of museums and private collections nationwide in 2004. However, the recognition criteria which based on a decree guiding on the execution of 2001 Cultural Heritage Law at that time were so vague that the policy failed despite careful preparation of the museums in appraising and making nomination lists of the national precious objects.
In 2009, Ministry of Culture-Sport and Tourism made a draft circular “Regulations on sequences and proceedings of national precious object recognition” with 9 detailed provisions. The Article No.2 states that the nominated objects must be “legally registered exhibits which meet all criteria as in Item 1 Articles 41a of the Cultural Heritage Law in 2001 amended and supplemented in 2009; the items whose files have been already submitted for recognition of the national precious objects”.
In other words, the nominated objects must satisfy the following criteria: be the original copy, the only version of in one or multiple terms of shape, size, material, decorative pattern, manipulation techniques, ways of use, content; have unique and distinctive outer appearance in comparison with others; have special valued relevant to major events of the country or typical national heroes and famous people; be well-known works of art in term of ideology and humanity, have aesthetic values which stand for a particular trend, style or age, etc.
“We have just received the 7th draft circular and have already made comments on it. Basically speaking, the document has quite specific and clear regulations. Yet, there are still ambiguous details which need to be clarified more, such as funds for the appraisals, rights associated with the recognized national precious objects,” said Director of Binh Dinh Museum, PhD. Dinh Ba Hoa.
* Binh Dinh will have national precious objects?
In 2004, Binh Dinh Museum drew up a primary nomination list of the precious objects including collections of Sa Huynh culture ceramics, bronze drums, Champa sculpture artefacts made of stone, terra-cotta and Go Sanh pottery, two unique exhibits – a clothe of a Nguyen Dynasty civil mandarin and a container of Emperor Quang Trung’s imperial edict.
“At that time, we nominated the objects by feeling because there was no specific criteria…We will establish a board of appraisal in next nominations for more careful and comprehensive evaluation. In my opinion, certain unique Champa sculptures and the container of Emperor Quang Trung ‘s imperial edict will meet the criteria to become the national precious objects”, said Mr. Ba Hoa.
The appraisal wouldn’t be easy at all, added him. “The local board of appraisal must have 7,9 or 11 members and be led by director or deputy director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism. The members must be well qualified for antique and relic appraisal,” stated the circular. Binh Dinh would face difficulties in forming such the board unless it invited outside experts and antique collectors.
The circular has no or vague regulations about the criteria of the national precious objects, rights, responsibilities and obligations of owners or ownership representatives of the recognized objects. These “obstacles” discourage many antique collectors to join in, as they themselves covers all appraisal expenses. The fact that whether any antique collector in Binh Dinh has the national precious objects is still a long wait.
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