TIMELESS JADE

With great anticipation the new addendum to the UNESCO Treaty laws with China was finally passed this last January 14Th, 2009. While almost all antiquities and artifacts of China’s long and illustrious history are effected there are some concessions granted that were not in the original proposal from China. This addendum was originally structured along the same law that the United Kingdom had passed in 1999 – No artifacts over 100 years old from China could be brought in to the United Kingdom regardless of the Country where it was purchased. The UNESCO Treaty law with United Kingdom, and other Countries that have signed it, to protect the cultural relics of China (including Stone, Pottery, Bronze, Wood and Jade etc. etc.) ’grandfathered in’ all existing artifacts in the signing Country at the time, but no more were allowed to enter from any other Country as the law clearly goes back to Country of Origin. However, when it came time for the USA to negotiate their version of the Treaty (originally structured along the same lines as the United Kingdom) it was the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco that took the lead, on behalf of the Association of Museums, that went to lobby Congress against the passing of this bill (a copy of their ludicrous lobbying report is in my possession and is a matter of public record), and for what I read as mostly self serving reasons fought the passing of the addendum, to the best of our knowledge,  for well over two years. During these years of lobbying, major concessions were allowed in the United States version. With China passing their side of the new law and stopping at the 100 year mark mentioned before, the United States side of the final law that passed held it to the last 1,000 years, as long the item was not a cultural relic from a Temple, or Holy Shrine. There are many references to the Tang Dynasty in the USA portion and in fact the law still reads unclear in some portions from both sides but the fact remains we have set the 1,000 years policy into effect. Why this 1,000 year concession? From this writer’s perspective it will still allow all the reproduction Ming Dynasty and 18Th – 19TH Century pieces to be exported legally, as they should be since they are not real anyway, and billions of dollars will made on both sides of the Pacific with the unknowing public once again being ‘fleeced”, and the ones who do know having complete control over the ‘shearing’. As to eBay China and eBay USA, well, it is as of this writing,  still business as usual and both seem to be far above the law as thousands of these piece are offered up for sale (with about a 99% reproduction ratio) daily. However it is a great place to find and then study, under microscopic conditions, the latest in reproduction techniques, as that thousands of year old profession is still being perfected daily and as new research on the ‘how’ is published the efforts towards perfection increase. Now as the USA Customs officials have already begun their policing efforts, one wonders what they know of artifacts and exactly how much experience they have in determining a real item from a fake one and a restored item from an in-situ one. One last screw for the time being – The Chinese side of the law exempts Hong Kong, and pieces are being sold out of China, shipped to Hong Kong, then shipped to the USA. But, does this not follow the ‘Country of Origin’ portion?

David Fredericks

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 6:19 am and is filed under Worldwide Jade News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.