VietNamNet Bridge – Jean Francois Hubert, a French senior expert of leading auctioneers Christie's and Sotheby's, visited Hue as part of his yearly working trip to Viet Nam. He talked to the reporter about the country's antique potential.

Hubert has done extensive research on Vietnamese history, artefacts, fine arts and Champa culture. He said he was very impressed about Vietnamese hand-made pottery from the Ly-Tran (11th-14th century) dynasties. They include teapots, glazed terra-cotta jars, lime pots and large jars in special shapes, style and decorative patterns. He said he believes that they are 100 per cent Vietnamese.

Currently, there are genuine and fake artifacts available in Viet Nam. How do you recognise which things are genuine and which things are fakes?

Many pottery artisans in Ha Noi's Bat Trang, stone carvers in the central city of Da Nang or bronze casting workers in the central province of Thanh Hoa are very skillful in making fake artifacts.

To tell fake artefacts from genuine, we have to carefully check the traces of age on the items. We have been doing this work regularly for years so we have a lot of experiences in recognising the difference. To appraise an object correctly, one has to be very careful and patient and to examine it for many days.

In fact, there are only a few qualified experts in the world who can thoroughly understand various artefacts. But there are many outstanding cheaters in this field.

During my working trips to the country, I've learned much from Vietnamese collectors. Several of them are strange. They have attained knowledge from the objects they have collected, but without studying about them from books or learning from schools as Western appraisers often do.

By doing so, they have accumulated a lot of knowledge and experiences and are able to recognise genuine objects from fake ones, such as the Dong Son (about 2000 years ago), the Champa (AD192) statues or the Phu Nam wooden Buddha.

It's not only in Viet Nam, fake objects are available everywhere, but there are many more fake artefacts in Western countries.

I have been researching Vietnamese artefacts for more than 20 years, so I can say that the country has a sizeable legacy of antiques, but our research is still limited.

Can you give any advise to collectors in Viet Nam about collecting artefacts?

To enter the field, collectors should be confident in themselves and learn to accumulate experience by themselves. They should have direct access to the objects as well. In addition, they should visit antique exhibitions or museums often and try to read books. There are many good books about pottery and other antiques in the country.

An artefact collector should be honest and modest in their study and research the art, while also trying to further their passion to follow the job - but they have to invest at least 15 years to know clearly if they can stick it out and follow the job through or not.

In addition, those collectors who have studied the theory of collecting for a long time, but without having handled real antiques, will be less capable of recognising genuine from fakes.

There is now a trend in which the Vietnamese are collecting more Vietnamese artefacts and less Chinese pottery. What do you think about this?

We have to acknowledge that China has many kinds of pottery. Much of this pottery is beautiful and majestic, so the Chinese are very interested in using it.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese and Japanese often have a human cultured look on the objects and often placed it interrelating with land. They saw image and voice of the land on the objects.

For example, Vietnamese and Japanese often keep a cracked object while Chinese are ready to throw it away.

I feel that our French also have such behaviour as Vietnamese and Japanese but is still at a low level. I don't know why this has happened so passionately by Vietnamese.

Over the past 30 years, this trend has been developing among artefact collectors around the world.

There are no official antique auctions in Viet Nam but only amateur ones. Do you know why?

It's not only Viet Nam, there are also no official artefact auctions in Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Auctions are a very good way to ensure the object's genuine and there is no cheating at the auction.

But it is very complicated to organise an official auction. For example, to auction an artefact such as a teapot, one has to approve its source, insurance, critics, fully trace it from its source, date it, characterise it and then define its price.

What I like most at an auction is that everything happens clearly from sellers to buyers.

However, the world's leading auction firms, such as Christie's and Sotheby's, have encountered many problems in auctioning.

One day, a customer brought 10 objects to the firm, but the firm only chose two for the auction because the remaining items were of low quality.

What is your prediction about antique auctions in Viet Nam?

I still don't see a market, including many years in the future. To have an official auction market we have to overcome the many complicated regulations from local administrations who are often afraid of cheating.

They often think little or they don't think about the major profits an official auction could bring to the nation but only thinking it is a game for relax of a group.

Like France and Italy, Viet Nam has high cultural standards. I often ask myself whether the Vietnamese realise this or not. I can say that Vietnamese culture is as valuable as its mineral resources, Vietnamese should tap it to become rich.

According to you, what is the position and value of Vietnamese artifacts in comparison to other parts of the world?

In the world market Vietnamese artefacts don't receive as much attention as Vietnamese paintings. They hold a higher position and the field is still developing.

I've organised a number of exhibitions and auctions of Vietnamese artefacts in 1995-96 but their prices weren't high.

Source: VNS