The Hue Relic Preservation Center is seeking the return of Nguyen Dynasty artefacts that were sold at an auction earlier this month.
Vietnam urged to take back royal treasures from France
Thanh Nien News, 25 June 2014
Preservationists in Vietnam’s former imperial capital of Hue have asked the government to get back a beloved emperor’s bed and rickshaw amid last-minute efforts by the French to keep them.
The items once belonged to King Thanh Thai (1879 – 1954) — the tenth emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) — Vietnam’s last ruling family — who was dethroned and banished for resisting French colonial powers.
Tuoi Tre reported that the Hue Relic Preservation Center sent a request to the Thua Thien-Hue Province government and the Ministry of Culture on June 16, asking them to find ways to retrieve the king’s bed and a rickshaw he commissioned for his mother.
Thanh Thai, who ruled from 1889 to 1907 and was known as a patriotic king who was one of three rulers — including his predecessor Ham Nghi and his son Duy Tan — to be exiled for opposing the French colonial government.
Full story here.
