Artefacts from the Cirebon shipwreck, which were unsuccessfully put up for sale in 2010, is once again put up for sale. The haul is worth approximately USD $80 million.
Treasure from wreck off Indonesia to go on sale
AFP, 06 March 2012
Ancient treasure worth an estimated $80 million dollars which was found in a ship that sank off Indonesia 1,000 years ago is up for sale again, the head of the excavation team said Monday.
The “Cirebon treasure” was discovered in a wreck off the port of Cirebon on Indonesia’s Java island and contains about 250,000 precious objects, including crystal, pearls and gold.
“(The haul) is certainly the largest ever found in Southeast Asia in terms of both quality and quantity,” Luc Heymans, the Belgian director of Cosmix Underwater Research Ltd., the Dubai-based firm that excavated the find, told AFP in an email.
The treasure was recovered from the wreck of a merchant ship — nationality unknown — that dates back to about about 960 A.D and was first spotted by Indonesian fishermen 57 metres (187 feet) under the sea.
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