Prof. Augustine Ho Ton Vinh.

VietNamNet – Overseas Vietnamese Professor Augustine Ho Ton Vinh has brought home thousands of antiques from wrecks, after 30 years of traveling around the world.

Prof Vinh was one of the most successful businessmen in the US in 1989. In 1995, he returned to Vietnam following his father’s wishes and his love for Vietnam. He was invited to teach economics at the Hanoi National University.

In 30 years, Prof Vinh has traveled to 74 countries. He is not known as a businessman and a professor only, but also as an antiques collector. He now owns a collection of antiquities, which he picked up from wrecks in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Africa and East Sea.

Prof Vinh is the holder of the largest number of ancient lime-pots in Vietnam, about 300, from different dates. The two biggest ones weigh 10kg, and one special one has a 20-cm neck. His collection has attracted researchers from the US, Australia, and China.  He plans to open one exhibition on the lime-pots abroad, and one in Vietnam, which will be called, ‘Ancient Vietnamese culture through lime-pots.’

The professor also wishes to build a private museum for the wrecked antiques in either Hoi An, Vung Tau, or on Phu Quoc Island. He said culture and antiques belong to all people, apart from some national treasures or valuable heritages. The government should allow private collectors to sell or lend the collections to international museums, associations and universities.

Together with some young people, he is now creating a website on antiques that will provide information on international and national antiques.

(Source: Tien Phong)