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After I had gotten back from Vietnam, a volunteer at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum asked me if I had heard about the 1520 ship wreck off the coast of Hoi An.  I said I vaguely remembered something about it and wondered why she asked me.  She laughed and asked if I remembered that on the second floor of the museum was a piece of the wreck with limestone and coral and inside are pieces of pottery from the wreck.  Imagine my surprise!  So I took my camera and above, is a shot of the display case at the museum!    Yes, I remembered seeing it several years ago but she was nice enough to remind me that I was just in Hoi An and I could see an artifact from the wreck two blocks from where I live!  A small world!  Read on about the history of the wreck and how Butterfields in San Francisco auctioned off 90% of the relics!

The Hoi An Wreck lies 22 miles off the coast of central Vietnam in the South China Sea.  Discovered by fishermen in the early 1990s, the Vietnamese government made several attempts to organize an investigation of the site but were confounded by the water depth - 230 feet. 

The ship was carrying a large cargo of Vietnamese ceramics from the mid- to late - 15th century.   The provenance of the pieces was known to be the kilns of the Red River Delta (such as Chu Dau) because excavations in the region had been ongoing since their discovery in 1983. The only pieces remaining at the kiln sites were wasters (pieces that had fused, collapsed or exploded in the firing process). Intact examples of the wares produced were rare, since all were exported. When the wreck was found there was excitement among collectors and archaeologists, for it promised the first cargo consisting solely of Vietnamese wares.

In 1996 Malaysian-Chinese businessman Ong Soo Hin teamed up with Oxford University archaeologist Mensun Bound to work with Vietnam's National History Museum in excavating the site. The project took four years and cost an estimated $14 million. Over 250,000 intact examples of Vietnamese ceramic were recovered.

According to the contract with the Vietnamese government, all pieces unique to the cargo were retained by Vietnam's museums for display along with 10% of the repetitive pieces. The remaining 90% was sold at auction in 2000 by Butterfields in San Francisco, with the Vietnamese Salvage Agency, Saga Horizon and the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture splitting any money made. The project partners were: Oxford University MARE, Saga Horizon, Vietnam National Salvage Agency (VISAL) and the National History Museum (Hanoi).