Viet Nam UNESCO Club

Collectors’ treasures become society’s gain - Viet Nam UNESCO Club

Those of us who collect such items as antiques, pottery, paper money and coins, books and souvenirs – myself included – know the joy that comes from adding another item to our personal collections.
A choice acquisition can keep us happy for days. So attached are we to these hard-won collections that we almost never think of giving our collections to someone else.

But there are some collectors who are ready to grant their valuable collections to the State museums. They believe that precious items should not be locked up in the family cupboard, but should instead be shared with the public.

Collector Duong Phu Hien in Tay ho District is one such generous donor. He is the owner of an extensive collection of antiques.

Recently, to celebrate the United Nations Day of Vesak 2008, Hien organised an exhibition at the Viet nam Fine Arts Museum to show 180 of his 245 antique Buddha statutes, most of them from China, India and Viet Nam. Many of the statutes, made of gold, silver and bronze, have shocked audiences with their beauty and sophistication.

A Japanese businessman offered to purchase Hien’s collection for US$15 billion. Businessman Nguyen Kim, owner of the nationwide Nguyen Kim retail chain, also wanted to buy some items, but Hien refused both offers.

"If I sold one of my antiques, I could live in comfort for the rest of my life," he says. "But I don’t need material wealth. What I need is a peace of mind. Before I die, I will grant my entire collection to the State, so that people who love the Buddha will be able to contemplate these works of art."

Another antique collector, Pham Ngoc Dung from Ha noi has so far donated more than 400 valuable antiques to State museums. These include pottery from the Ly, Tran and Le dynasties, eras of pottery production remarkable for their traditions of rich pictorial art and exquisite glazing techniques.

"Preserving the artefacts of history means keeping a part of the past. We should not let the old cultural values be washed away by time. I would be happy if everyone could share my aspirations," he says simply.

Last August, members of the Viet Nam UNESCO Club for Antiques Collectors granted 141 items to the Military History Museum.

Such generosity is not limited to professional collectors, but is shared by many people from all walks of life.

Tran Thi Hoa, head of the Study and Collection Chamber of the Viet Nam Revolution Museum, says the museum now manages about 80,000 items. "Most of them were given by families and individuals to the museum," she says.

Hoa says the museum recently collected items of veterans who fought and worked in Laos. "Thousands of veterans nationwide have given us nearly 2,000 valuable items, and none of them asked us for any payment," she says.

Museum representative Nguyen Hoai Nam has just concluded a trip to collect items in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta."Many of the families holding on to these items were poor, but when we told them that the museum should have such items for exhibitions, they voluntarily gave them to us, because they understand that this is their civil responsibility to future generations," he says.

Overseas Vietnamese Nguyen Van An in France, a book lover, says he wants to grant all 3,000 of his precious books to Viet Nam’s book lovers. "When a man goes, he cannot bring anything with him. So I want to grant all my books to other readers, so that these books will live on longer after myself."

Culture is something to be shared with others. When we keep an item for ourselves it has cash value only. But if we introduce it to the community, it takes on the value of cultural heritage.

Donating items to museums is a new cultural behaviour that should be respected. Without the generous actions of collectors and individuals, the public would never get the chance to contemplate many treasures.

Donors often receive only a piece of paper – a certificate from the museums to which they donate, in exchange for giving up priceless treasures.

Actually, these donors gain other benefits from giving. Their items are often better preserved in the museums, where they receive the attention of professionals and find suitable places to be stored and exhibited.

If an items remains at a collector’s home, it has only a solitary value. But when a museum brings many pieces together in an exhibition on a certain theme, period, or movement, these items can begin to tell us something about their values and the character of the time in which they were created.

In being shared with all of society, the items of an individual can become a common asset of the community. These items will last beyond one lifetime, immortalised for future generations.

(Source: VNS)

Tag: Culture , Day Of Vesak , Exhibition , Ha Noi , Japan , Japanese , Vesak , Viet Nam , Vietnam , Vietnamese

Collectors’ treasures become society’s gain - Viet Nam UNESCO Club

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