Degradation of important keris over time

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

However, all the recent underwater finds are a pretty new phenomenon. I do know one gentleman engaged in this business of finding things on the floor of Bengawan Solo, I know him quite well in fact. I would prefer not to comment.

Yes, no doubt there are valid finds all over the area all the time. But as you not, these river find seem fairly recent. But they have clearly found their market with them. I see much excitement about such finds all the time on various Facebook keris pages. The lure of the ancient and mysterious i suppose. While i find it mildly interesting it also seems far too difficult to tell real finds from fakes. But certainly they have created a large audience of collectors who want to believe.

[Anthony G.]

Originally Posted by David

Yes, no doubt there are valid finds all over the area all the time. But as you not, these river find seem fairly recent. But they have clearly found their market with them. I see much excitement about such finds all the time on various Facebook keris pages. The lure of the ancient and mysterious i suppose. While i find it mildly interesting it also seems far too difficult to tell real finds from fakes. But certainly they have created a large audience of collectors who want to believe.

Privately I have seen quite a good no. of very ancient finds. The buyers need to have good and trusted contacts/sources in order to even see the artefacts. The price naturally is different with foreigners paying more pricy for the items unlike locals.

But not easy to find and is very rare even locally. Most of the time, it is snap up once the local community knows about it. Foreigners hardly have chance to get it. Having said so, getting a genuine artefacts are also a great challenge.