Political Facts and Tips

Smugglers who take treasured Jingdezhen porcelain relics out of China have been a serious problem in the country for decades. However, for many Chinese, one name is the most notorious of all.

For this story, this man’s name is Michael Hatcher (pseudonym), who is said to have stolen tons of Jingdezhen porcelain items and sold them for an enormous profit. What’s even more appalling, he is accused of having destroyed hundreds of antique porcelain pieces to increase his earnings.

Hatcher recovered the Tek Sing in the South China Sea in 1999.

The perilous sea is a veritable treasure chest. In ancient times, it was packed with ships carrying beautiful porcelain to the west where demand was skyrocketing. But many ships ended up on the bottom of the sea, including the Tek Sing, which sank on January 14, 1822.

Going down with Tek Sing were almost a million beautiful porcelain products: vases, teapots, and powder boxes just to name a few. They were all made in the top four kilns in China, each a fine example of China’s accomplishments in porcelain-making.

Just over 100 years after the ship sank, Hatcher came upon it in astonishment. Some say that there were so many porcelain items, stacking them on top of one another would make a mountain.

Most of the pieces survived the impact when Tek Sing hit the sea floor and were still in good condition. But Hatcher allegedly ordered his men to smash most of them into pieces, knowing that he could only make profit by hiking the prices. Only the best of the best were left and secretly moved to a ship where they sat for over a year. Thus, by UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, he could now claim the ownership of the salvaged porcelain.

It’s estimated that he made almost 40 million dollars from the “stolen” porcelain! This angered many people.

But some people have a little payback, because after it was sold, the porcelain increased in value by as much as 15 times!