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Latest news on Antique Jingdezhen (JDZ) Ming and Qing pottery

It was reported in HK that JDZ a town in which porcelain making is historical and famous, there were thefts of priceless Ming and Qing pieces. The thiefs had carried out their act by tunneling into the kilns of JDZ.

These old and ancient kilns were protected properties and designated by the government of China has historical sites. These Ming and Qing vases were stored there. These porcelain pieces included vases, teapots and other pottery pieces. They were all Kuan pieces or imperial pieces that were owned by the imperial family.

As an estimation of the value of these pieces, in 1999, one of these vases were sold at an auction in HK for HK$30,000,000. The stolen potttery pieces amount to up to 10 times the number of pieces in the museum.

This kiln which stored imperial porcelain was discovered early 2000 and it was 10 feet deep. They managed to get into the storeroom via a wooden walkway and it was tunneled into a mountain. Last year they had managed to catch a thief while he was tunneiling then. There were at least 50 such cases in the past 2 years. However, the current case is a very painful lesson for the authorities.