page_title: Belitung shipwreck
section_title: Current disposition
hierarchical_section_title: Belitung shipwreck / Cargo and "Tang treasure" / Current disposition
caption_attribution_description: English: Part of the collection of artifacts from the Belitung shipwreck owned by the Sentosa Leisure Group and the Government of Singapore, photographed while displayed at an exhibition called Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds at the ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, from 19 February 2011 to 31 July 2011.
context_page_description: The Belitung shipwreck is the wreck of an Arabian dhow which sank en route from Africa to China around 830 CE. The ship completed the outward journey, but sank on the return journey, approximately 1 mile off the coast of Belitung Island, Indonesia. It is unclear why the ship was so far from its expected route back from China. Belitung is to the south-east of the Singapore Strait by 380 miles, and this secondary route is more normal for ships travelling from the Java Sea, which is south of Belitung Island.
  The wreck has given archaeologists two major discoveries: the biggest single collection of Tang dynasty artefacts found in one location, the so-called "Tang Treasure"; and the Arabian dhow, which gives a new insight into the trade routes between China and the Middle East during that period. The treasure has been kept as one collection and, during the excavation, the efforts to preserve the integrity of the site and its cargo have resulted in detailed archaeological evidence. This evidence has given new insight into the construction methods used in shipbuilding, and the items and style of artefacts has revealed previously unknown facts about the trade between the two areas.
context_section_description: Tilman Walterfang's company formed a contract of cooperation with the original Indonesian salvage company and as a result the cargo was not sold off piece by piece to collectors. Although there were instances of some looting from the site, particularly between the two excavation periods, Walterfang kept the cargo intact as one complete collection so that it could be studied in its original context; something which has given an "unparalleled insight into China's industrial capacity and global trade" according to Julian Raby, director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. It was housed in a private conservation facility for six years, where the artefacts were painstakingly conserved (including desalination), studied, and carefully restored by Walterfang's company, Seabed Explorations Ltd of New Zealand. The work was carried out with the assistance of German conservator Andreas Rettel, who trained at the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz. The artefacts were authenticated by Professor Geng Baochang, a senior research fellow at the Palace Museum in Beijing. Geng is the deputy director of Beijing's Forbidden City and one of China's foremost experts on antique ceramics.
  The cargo was purchased for around 32 million USD by a private company, the Sentosa Leisure Group (now the Sentosa Development Corporation), and the Singaporean government in 2005, and loaned to the Singapore Tourism Board.
  The debut exhibit of the treasure ran from 19 February 2011 to 31 July 2011 at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore. The display was put on with the collaboration of the Smithsonian Institution, The Freer Gallery of Art, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Singapore Tourism Board, and the National Heritage Board of Singapore. The exhibition was then scheduled to travel the world for approximately five years, to venues which include museums of major importance throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. In April 2015, it was announced that the Asian Civilisations Museum would house the Tang Shipwreck collection.
  The treasure has now found a permanent home, as the Tang Shipwreck, in the Khoo Teck Puat Gallery of the Asian Civilisations Museum, in Singapore.
caption: A monumental ewer with incised floral lozenges and clouds, made of glazed stoneware with copper-green splashes over a white slip; probably from the Gongxian kilns, Henan
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