VietNamNet Bridge – The authorities of Quang Nam Province on Thursday returned 1,457 artifacts to an antique collector 12 years after the provincial police seized them.

The antiques belonged to Nguyen Muoi, a HCM City collector. The artifacts had been kept at Quang Nam Museum’s warehouses.

According to the case file, on August 15, 2003, Nguyen Muoi hired a fisherman in Hoi An town to carry him on his fishing boat to Cu Lao Cham water of Quang Nam to purchase 33 artifacts from those who searched for antiques from an ancient wreck.

While Muoi was transporting the artifacts on a road in Son Tra district, Da Nang city, the police inspected and seized the antiques.

The police then searched Muoi’s home and seized 1,484 artifacts in 27 boxes. The antiques were then brought to the warehouse of Quang Nam museum.

At that time, the police of Quang Nam had detected a ring that had been trading antiques found from the ancient wreck in Cham Island waters.

Muoi said that his antiques were not from the ancient wreck. They were the fruits of 10 years of collection, with the goal of opening a private museum.

Of the antiques seized by police, 1,457 were collected before July 2000 and 27 purchased after that. Referring to the Heritage Act 2001 and the provisions of the law, in 2004 the People’s Procuracy of Quang Nam suspended the criminal case against Muoi.

However, the antiques were seized and transferred to the People’s Committee of Quang Nam to be handled under the law.

After nearly 12 years of filing complaints to relevant agencies, on September 16, Vice Chairman of Quang Nam Province - Nguyen Chin - signed a decision to return more than 1,457 artifacts to Muoi.

Vu Trung