Comment By Irv: $180,000! They’re all mad I tell you, I would not give any more than a couple of hundred quid.
The silly news story went something like this: In 2018, filmmakers and adventurers Leon Deschamps and Shayne Thomson discovered a small, bronze statue of a child-like Buddha while sweeping a metal detector over the dunes of a West Australian beach. They believed that the statue, which has since been valued at up to $180,000, could be an ancient relic of the Chinese Ming Dynasty and could potentially be the smoking gun that proves Chinese sailors landed in Australia centuries before Europeans did.
Deschamps and Thomson were initially accused of orchestrating an elaborate hoax to drum up publicity for their filmmaking enterprise. However, after a years-long fight to prove the authenticity of the statue, it was confirmed to be genuine by Antiques Roadshow expert Lee Young, who specializes in Asian art.
The statue is believed to have come to Australia in the 1420s as part of one of the richest Chinese treasure voyages. It is considered to be the oldest known Chinese artifact in Australian history. However, its discovery does not definitively prove that Chinese sailors reached the continent over 600 years ago.
Young valued the object at between £3,000 and £5,000 (AU$5300 to $8900) at an auction pre-sale, based on recent purchases of similar relics. However, due to the unique backstory of the statue, Young believes that it could be worth up to £100,000 (AU$180,000).
The statue’s backstory is indeed fascinating. Deschamps and Thomson unearthed it while on a metal detecting exhibition for a documentary about the early 1800s French exploration of Australia. They were looking for objects left behind during a Napoleonic-era voyage, and found many an empty beer can before stumbling upon the stunning piece.
According to proponents of the theory that Chinese sailors visited Australia almost 200 years before the Dutch ever set sail, Chinese “treasure fleets” explored the world for minerals, and they reached Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory, built small villages and associated with Aboriginal people. However, this theory has been mostly dismissed due to lack of evidence.
Although the statue does not definitively prove that Chinese sailors landed in Australia centuries ago, it is a fascinating artifact that tells a unique story. Young said he was “honored” just to stand close to the statue. “Occasionally, an object comes our way that has an amazing story that makes it almost a world treasure, and the story about this little Buddha and the journey that it’s made to get here today, to me, makes this an exceptional object,” he said.
