Four hundred objects collected from French Indochina will be auctioned in Paris in May.

The objects, dating back to 1860-1945, will be auctioned on May 21-23 at Druot Hotel Paris’ 9th District.

The objects, which were collected by Lynda Trouvé and Christophe Fumeux, include paintings by students of Indochina Fine Arts College, posters, photos and art books, as well as pottery, wooden objects, jewellery and traditional dress.

Anyone who wants to sell their own collection of French Indochinese objects can contact the organisers.

A book presenting the objects will be available on the website www.artvalorem.fr.

Some of the objects were previously exhibited in Marseille, France, in 1922.

They include samples of a fishing boat on Mekong River, wooden boats on Ha Long Bay and the 1.7m-long train wagon that once ran on the Sai Gon-Thap Cham-Da Lat routes.

Gustave Sagé, the man responsible for this previous exhibition, has preserved the objects over the last 90 years.

Organisers of the auction said it proved that Vietnam, as a colonised country in the 19th century, had an ancient civilisation with many talented artists and artisans.

VNS