Over 1000-year-old sunken Chinese treasure returns home

The 162 pieces of treasure were part of a huge cargo of ninth-century porcelain traded from China during the Tang Dynasty.

A stash of 1,200-year-old Chinese treasure found under the sea has been returned to China’s central Hunan province.

A Ru Guanyao brush washer bowl from China's Song Dynasty is displayed during a press conference after its record breaking sale for $ 37.7 million at the Sotheby's Chinese Works of Art Autumn Sales in Hong Kong on October 3. (AFP File Photo/Representative image)

Experts believe they will provide evidence of China’s overseas porcelain trade during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The 162 pieces of treasure were part of a huge cargo of ninth-century porcelain traded from China during the Tang Dynasty via an Arab dhow, which wrecked in Indonesia’s Java sea.

In 1998, a German salvage company discovered the shipwreck and named it ‘Batu Hitam’.

More than 67,000 pieces of treasure were found in the ship, 85 per cent of which came from a kiln in Changsha, now Hunan’s capital city.

Most of the porcelain is now owned by Tilman Walterfang, head of the salvage company.

In September, the administration office of the kiln in Changsha signed an agreement with Walterfang to return a collection of 162 pieces to China, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.

The treasure sent home includes fine ceramics from several kilns in the provinces of Hunan, Zhejiang, Hebei, Henan and Guangdong.

The treasure is expected to be accessible to the public at a museum in Changsha by early 2018.