The UK’s Antiques Roadshow has identified the West Australian find of a bronze infant Buddha figurine as a rare Ming Dynasty relic and a “world treasure”.

Its finders, two men from Shark Bay on Australia’s north-west coast, will auction it with a reserve price of $100,000 after its evaluation by the show’s Asian art expert.

The expert is Lee Young, owner and managing director of Dore and Rees auctioneers in Frome, Somerset, established in 1868.

The program aired on Sunday night, UK time and will soon be available to view online.

“We’re very fortunate on Antiques Roadshow that we do get to see some wonderful items and objects,” host Fiona Bruce said.

“But occasionally, an item comes our way that has an amazing story that makes it almost a world treasure.”

Young showed awe at the object.

“Let’s clear this up straightaway. Yes, it is Ming,” he told co-finder Leon Deschamps. “And yes, it is the infant Buddha.”

“There is an example of one of the infant Buddhas in the Imperial collection, the palace collection … this would have [belonged to] somebody of some standing,” he said.

The infant Buddha was brought out in ceremonies to celebrate Buddha’s birthday, with purified water or tea poured across its shoulders.

Young said as a Ming Dynasty piece without such a story, it would probably carry a presale estimate of £3000-£5000 ($AUD5000-$9000) but given its historical importance – what remains unclear is whether it has links to a 15th-century Chinese treasure expedition, or whether it was left on the beach more recently – it could fetch much more.

He would not be surprised, he said, if the hammer fell at £10,000 ($18,000) or £50,000 ($90,000).

“All of us collectors are history hunters. And I can see people getting sort of scooped up in this,” he said.

“Even if it made £100,000 [$175,000] I don’t think I’d be that surprised. Because there is only one of these with that story. I mean, I just, I’m actually honoured to have been as close to this as I am … it’s history-making and for you to have made that incredible journey with him, you know to be here today.”

Leon Deschamps and Shayne Thompson, who run aquatic filming company FINN Films, were exploring a public roadside with a metal detector in 2018 when they discovered the Buddha, which weighs more than a kilogram despite its small size, and which now belongs to them under relevant laws. When their metal detectors indicated something large and close to the surface they set up cameras and GPS markers to record their discovery.

The pair say they have spent more than $50,000 on laboratory research and travel to interview scientists and academics in their attempts to uncover its origins, and the same amount again in man-hours, since the find which was also exclusively reported by this masthead. This was how they arrived at their decided auction reserve price.

Following the find they engaged with all possible stakeholders, including police, local and state government, the WA Maritime Museum, the ambassador to China and Museum of Chinese Australian History, antique dealers, art historians, various Chinese associations, archaeologists and local Indigenous elders.

Retired WA Museum fellow and respected corrosion expert Dr Ian McLeod tested the effect of the dirt on the corrosion present on the Buddha and publicly stated it had been buried at the exact location of its roadside discovery and could not have been “planted”.

“It is not possible, even with the most sophisticated chemical methods, to develop a complex patina such as found on the Shark Bay bronze object,” he wrote.

“It can reasonably estimated that the object has been in that environment for very many decades, that is, it has not been planted on the site, in an attempt to lure metal detector operators into the
belief that they have found some ancient object.”

He publicly stated his belief it had been buried for more than 100 years.

The finders said their research had shown that the verge was in a geologically turbulent area close to coastal sand dunes subject to strong winds and tides and the Buddha could therefore have been buried and uncovered several times, making it possible the figurine lay at the location long before its final burial.

The most exciting possible explanation for the object’s presence in WA is that it came on the 1421 Ming treasure voyage, when the Chinese emperor sent the great explorer Zheng He to travel the world.

Leon Deschamps with Antiques Roadshow’s Lee Young.Credit:FINN Films

This could mean the Chinese visited the region almost 200 years before Dutchman Dirk Hartog landed in 1616.

A less potentially geopolitically sensitive explanation is that it arrived in the 150 or so years since the 1870s, when the Chinese are first known to have come to the north-west coast.

The finders, Leon Deschamps and Shayne Thompson, say the site is under surveillance and has not been further disturbed since their discovery.

They hope it could contain the Buddha’s missing index fingers, which Dr McLeod’s report said had been glued in and might have been made of ivory. He recommended further work at the site.

They hope governments will work with the Chinese community and local Indigenous custodians to co-fund an archaeological dig; that the Buddha will find a culturally appropriate home; and that museum-quality replicas could be made to tell its story in Australia.

“This story is only a positive one telling the history of the journeys of incredibly brave sailors along ancient trade routes,” they said in a statement.

They added it was not to be regarded as a European colonial-style object used to claim land tenure as Buddhists did not believe in possession of wealth.

“This has been reinforced strongly in all our dealings with Chinese academics,” they said.

“In the last four years it has cost us significant personal capital and time to be able to investigate and protect the Buddha appropriately. The Buddha is currently offshore in an expensive high security private commercial location. We want it to find a home with a culturally appropriate owner who will hopefully publicly display the Buddha in either Australia or China.

“If we had not continued with our self-funded research then this discovery would never have been confirmed as a priceless antiquity and an incredible and proud part of Australia and China’s shared regional history.

“Depending on the final hammer price we hope to use part proceeds, once we have recovered our costs, to help fund initiatives to help protect our local cultural heritage sites, both Indigenous and Asian and European.

“It is also our dream to continue to support the new local Malgana sea rangers initiative on their journey to protect cultural sites within our home, as well as potentially be involved in providing replicas, our research catalogues and funding for future museum exhibits and any future archaeological digs.”

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