Shanghai Yangming Auction Co., Ltd, China has suspended the auction of royal ordination documents of Vietnam origin.

Ordinance of Vietnam origin. Photo: Yangming Auction

The Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism on April 19  halted the auction and Vietnam requested the agency to provide more information on the issue, said Doan Khac Viet, Deputy Spokesman of Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

The 12 ordinances, which were mainly issued under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), are no longer available on the auction house’s website. The auction was scheduled to take place on April 22

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will keep coordinating with the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, relevant localities, and the Vietnamese missions abroad to closely monitor the case’s developments and take additional action, Doan Khac Viet said at a press conference today [April 20].

Earlier, authorities in Di Nau Commune in Vietnam’s Northern Province of Phu Tho reported that some of the royal ordination documents which were stolen in 2021 are up for sale in China.

There have been many Vietnamese royal documents and antiques up for auction abroad. Last year, an 11-kg gold seal of the Nguyen Dynasty was offered for sale at Paris-based Millon auction house. The gold imperial seal was made in 1823 for Emperor Minh Mang. The starting price of the square-shaped seal with a twisting dragon carved on top was estimated at US$3 million.  

The seal was consigned to the auction house in the catalog “Great Civilizations: Vietnam Arts Sale” along with around 330 Vietnamese artworks, including a gold bowl in Khai Dinh reign (1917-1025).

Around the world, efforts are usually made by the countries of origin to repatriate stolen or looted cultural materials.

In reality, there are three ways that antiques of Vietnamese origin have been repatriated. The first is that individuals and organizations purchased the objects and offered them to the State (Ngu Ho pagoda’s bell was brought to Bac Ninh from Tokyo in 1978). In the second way, individuals and organizations bought them at overseas auctions and ceded them to the State (royal clothes in the Nguyen Dynasty for Hue in 2015 and 2022). And foreign governments voluntarily return to Vietnam the artifacts seized in illegal trading (some objects were brought home from Germany in 2018 and some from the US in 2022).