Maritime Experiential Museum & Aquarium

The Maritime Experiential Museum & Aquarium (MEMA, Simplified Chinese: 海事博物馆及水族馆 (Maritime Museum and Aquarium)), formerly the Maritime Xperiential Museum, is a museum in Resorts World Sentosa, Sentosa, Singapore built to house the Jewel of Muscat and some of the 60,000 artefacts salvaged from the Belitung shipwreck, an Arabian dhow wrecked off the coast of Belitung Island.

Background

The Jewel of Muscat is an accurate reproduction of the Arab dhow ship presented by the Sultanate of Oman to the government and people of Singapore after its arrival after recreating part of the Belitung ships's route from Oman to Indonesia.

The artefacts, purchased by the Sentosa Leisure Group in 2005, are on loan to the Singapore Tourism Board. The museum will support research and conservation and is due to be opened on 15 October 2011.^[1]

Shipwreck

Main article: Belitung shipwreck

The Belitung shipwreck was discovered in 1998 by sea-cucumber fishermen diving in shallow water, just off the coast of Belitung island near Java. The wreck was excavated by Tilman Walterfang where it was discovered that the cargo of 60,000 items was still in place.

Cargo

Thanks to Tilman Walterfang’s ethical philosophy the cargo was not sold off piece by piece to collectors. Walterfang kept the precious cargo intact as one complete collection so that it could be studied in its original context. It was housed in private storage for six years where the items have been painstakingly conserved (including desalination), studied and carefully restored by Tilman's company Seabed Explorations Ltd in New Zealand.

The cargo was eventually purchased for around $32 million US,^[2][3] and was put on display at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands, in an exhibition called "Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds" running from 19 February to 31 July 2011.

See also

• Belitung shipwreck
• Jewel of Muscat
• ArtScience Museum

References

1. ^ "Discovering Southeast Asia’s maritime history". Resorts World Sentosa (Official Blog). http://www.rwsentosablog.com/2011/09/06/discovering-southeast-asias-maritime-history/#more-1071. Retrieved 14 September 2011. 
2. ^ "Sentosa Proceeds to Buy 9th Century Treasure". Singapore: Sentosa. April 8, 2005. http://www.sentosa.sg/about_us/press_releases/press_release_details.asp?id=11. Retrieved 17 February 2010. 
3. ^ "CHINA MARITIME SILK ROAD MUSEUM". The Australian National University. http://www.chinaheritagenewsletter.org/articles.php?searchterm=001_maritimesilk.inc&issue=001. Retrieved 17 February 2010. 

External links

• Official site
• Seabed Explorations website
• Story and some pictures of the treasures
• Website of the Jewel of Muscat
• Video interviews
• Story about ship's discovery in The Independent