S Korean group's offer on dino fossils could be a hoax

Phisit Charoenwong, director of the Seamco Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts, said recently that trade in dinosaur fossils and any archaeological artefacts went against the acquisition ethics endorsed and upheld by the international community.

The claim could be fake, or not made sincerely if it was real, he said. The Koreans may only want documents from the Thai government showing that it wants to buy back the fossils, which they would possibly use to inflate the prices of their bones in black markets, he said.

A group of Korean businessmen said last month that they acquired a total of 895 dinosaur fossils, which belonged to about six Thaisauropods that were excavated in Thailand, and wanted to sell them to Thailand for US$60 million (Bt2.1 billion).

Phisit said the government should submit a written request to the South Korea government asking it to investigate the matter, and try to have the fossils sent back to Thailand, if the claim was real and the fossils proved genuine.

Rewadee Sakulphanich, an expert in international cultural laws at the Fine Arts Department, said she first heard about the offer in May 2006 when a Foreign Ministry memo inquiring about the matter was received by her department, but she was transferred to another post before the matter could proceed.

She said the government should press for the unconditional return of all fossils to Thailand, because it was likely that the relics were smuggled out.

"It needs to be determined how those fossils were lawfully exported from Thailand, because no permission has been granted or no request made with Thai authorities," she said.

Before a new law protecting fossils found in Thailand became effective on August 9, all fossils were regarded as artefacts under a law which required permission from the directorgeneral of the Fine Arts Department to have them taken out of the country.

"No requests were ever made to the department to export fossils from Thailand," she said.

According to the Korean businessmen's document, 324 fossils were exported from Thailand on November 6, 2002 and 571 pieces on January 29, 2003. Chin Jae Hun, one of the businessmen, claimed that he initially thought the fossils belonged to prehistoric cattle, but found out later that they were from dinosaurs.