Sinan ship undersea treasures recovered in 36 years

The police have rounded up the looter who has been stealing scores of pieces of undersea treasures including rare pottery off the sea of Sinan for the last 36 years. The Cultural Heritage Administration and the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency announced Thursday that they arrested a poacher who has pillaged 57 pieces of pottery off the sea of Jeungdo, Sinan County in South Jeolla Province, and recovered the stolen treasures.

According to the heritage authorities, the man in question hired a diver in 1983 to poach 57 pieces of undersea treasures near the Sinan ship and has been hiding them in his house for some time. Then, he got arrested by police on March 20 while trying to bring the potteries to Japan and sell them off there to solve his financial problems. “The potteries found at the Sinan ship are very similar to one another in shape and composition,” said Han Sang-jin, an officer from the Cultural Heritage Administration. “While the suspect claims that they belonged to his mother, we’ve already secured testimonies pointing to the fact that he mentioned them as ‘treasures from Sinan ship’ in a bid to sell them,” he added.

The cache of potteries recovered this time includes 46 celadons, eight pieces of white porcelains, and three black celadons. In particular, the large-sized celadon plate with cloud and dragon patterns and peony-patterned celadon are nearly perfectly preserved, with extremely high academic, exhibitional, and educational values.


Won-Mo Yu onemore@donga.com