The "Emperor's Treasure" Golden Seal Returns Home

According to a representative of the Department of Cultural Heritage, information about the exact time the antiques arrived in Vietnam needs to be kept confidential for security reasons.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung has chosen Nam Hong Royal Museum Limited Company (Bac Ninh) to complete financial procedures regarding the rights of the parties related to the gold seal, according to French law.

The Nam Hong Royal Museum will preserve and display the seal, and coordinate with the National History Museum to protect and promote the value of the treasure, according to the provisions of the Law on Cultural Heritage.

Mr. Nguyen The Hong, owner of the Nam Hong Royal Museum, spent 6.1 million Euros (more than 153 billion VND) to buy the seal, under the sponsorship of the Vietnamese Government and ministries, branches and agencies.

Mr. Hong signed a commitment with the Department of Cultural Heritage that he would only transfer the treasure to the State agency when he no longer needed to own and display the seal at the Nam Hong Royal Museum. The transfer costs include the cost of hiring a lawyer to negotiate, the cost of purchasing the seal from Millon Auction House, and the cost of bringing the seal back to Vietnam.

The event is the result of more than a year of negotiations, legal proceedings requiring the public auction to be stopped.Emperor's Treasurein Paris, and at the same time agreed and unified the requirements for transferring the gold seal to the Vietnamese side.

On the afternoon of November 16, the seal transfer ceremony took place at the Vietnamese Embassy in France, witnessed by an interdisciplinary delegation chaired by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, along with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Finance, and Public Security.

The Vietnamese side included Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung, Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang, Head of the Permanent Delegation of Vietnam to UNESCO Le Thi Hong Van, Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage Le Thi Thu Hien, and representatives of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security. In addition, representatives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNESCO were also present.

The journey to repatriate the gold seal received great public attention after the French auction house Millon offered the seal for 2-3 million euros (48 to 72 billion VND) in October 2022.

After verification, the Department of Cultural Heritage confirmed the golden seal.Emperor's Treasureis true. The authorities want to mobilize all resources to bring the seal back to the country. Another option is that domestic agencies and organizations can donate, participate in auctioning the seal, bring it back and donate it to the museum.

Millon Company then postponed the auction many times, creating conditions for the Vietnamese side to have more time to negotiate to buy back.

In November 2022, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced successful negotiations with the Millon auction house to transfer the seal to Vietnam, "in the spirit of consensus, understanding between the two sides and the friendly cooperative relationship between Vietnam and the French Republic".

The ministry representative said that repatriating the golden seal is not only to supplement and complete the collections of antiques, treasures, and cultural heritages that have been lost or "bleeding" abroad, but also to affirm the position and influence of the nation.

Mr. Nguyen The Hong - a private collector in Bac Ninh - is the buyer of the gold seal to add to his personal collection.

Named ArtifactsRare golden seal Kim Bao Ty of Emperor Minh Mang(1791-1841), height 10.4 cm, weight 10.78 kg, square face, size 13.8x13.7 cm.

The top of the seal is engraved with two lines: "Minh Mang tu nien nhi nguyet so tu nhat cat thoi chu tao" (Made on February 4, the 4th year of King Minh Mang's reign, February 4, 1823) and "Thap thanh hoang kim trong nhi bach bat thap lang cuu tien nhi phan" (Made of gold, weighs 280 taels, 9 chi, 2 phan, about 10.7 kg). The base of the seal is printed with the words "Hoang de chi bao" (Emperor's treasure).

According to the bookThe Great Nam Code of ConductThe seal was used for public and political activities of the Nguyen Dynasty such as festivals, granting of grace, pardon, inspection of localities, and royal decrees to foreign countries. The representative of the Department affirmed that the Imperial Seal is the largest, most beautiful, precious and important golden seal of the Nguyen Dynasty.

The treasure is associated with many important historical milestones. On the afternoon of August 30, 1945, after announcing his abdication, King Bao Dai handed over the "Hoang De Chi Bao" seal - selected from 200 seals of various types kept at Can Chanh Palace and the Royal Palace Office, along with the sword that King Khai Dinh (reigned from 1916 to 1925) handed over to the revolutionary government at Ngo Mon Gate.

Historian Tran Huy Lieu received the seal and sword and sent them to Hanoi before President Ho Chi Minh read the declaration of independence, giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945.

In December 1946, the French colonialists reoccupied Hanoi, and the artifacts were hidden in a house in Nghia Do village - which used to be a Viet Minh printing factory. The house was destroyed in 1947. On February 28, 1952, a French battalion led by Battalion Commander Toce Raymond dug up the foundation of the house to collect broken bricks and discovered two boxes containing the seals and swords.

In the same year, France presented two artifacts to former Emperor Bao Dai, then Head of State of the State of Vietnam. The event took place on March 8, 1952, and was recorded by the French magazine Paris Match. At that time, Bao Dai was in France, and Empress Dowager Doan Huy and Mrs. Mong Diep - the former emperor's concubine - received the set of seals and swords on his behalf.

In 1953, due to the war situation, Bao Dai sent Mrs. Mong Diep to bring two artifacts and some personal belongings, and gave them to Queen Nam Phuong and former Crown Prince Bao Long for safekeeping.

In 1963, Queen Nam Phuong passed away, and Bao Long deposited the artifacts in a safe at the Union des Banques Européennes (European Bank). In her memoir Le Dragon d'Annam (The Dragon of Annam, published in 1980), Ms. Mong Diep said that the former emperor wanted to use his seal to stamp the book to increase the value of the work. However, Bao Long refused to lend it.

Bao Dai sued his son to reclaim the artifact. A French court later ruled that Bao Dai owned the royal seal, and Bao Long kept the sword. In 1982, the former emperor married Frenchwoman Monique Baudot. Before his death in August 1997, he left a will, giving his wife the right to inherit all his assets in France, including the seal. Monique Baudot died in 2021. Last year, her heirs auctioned off the seal.