Rare Chinese porcelain from 18th-century shipwreck on display in Oslo

A remarkable collection of Chinese porcelain, recovered from an 18th-century shipwreck discovered off the coast of Norway earlier this year, is now on display in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, offering visitors a rare glimpse into early global trade.

Now being showcased at the Norwegian Maritime Museum, the artifacts, which spent more than 250 years underwater, were salvaged from what experts describe as the best-preserved wreck ever found in Northern Europe.

The vessel, known to researchers as the Porcelain Wreck, was located at a depth of 600 meters, far deeper than most historic wrecks, which are typically discovered between 10 and 30 meters below the surface. The porcelain features distinctive Batavia-style designs, popular in the 18th century and widely traded between Asia and Europe.

Archaeologists said cold waters and the absence of shipworms helped preserve both the ship and its cargo.

“Many of the objects, for example this cup, are almost perfectly preserved. We believe that it might be produced in Jingdezhen in China,” said Sven Ahrens, director of Research and Heritage Management at Norwegian Maritime Museum.

The wreck was discovered by Espen Saastad, a watch designer from Porsgrunn in southeastern Norway who also operates a small remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, and seabed survey company.

“After maybe half an hour, an hour, we started to see small objects on the seabed. First on the sonar, some hard objects, and then after we come closer and we get the small objects on the camera,” said Saastad.

For Saastad, it was the discovery of a lifetime. The diving enthusiast joined forces with the Norwegian Maritime Museum to recover artifacts using the ROVs, a first in Northern Europe.

“This is the most amazing find that we ever did. It’s like a time capsule on the seabed. The wreck is completely intact,” Saastad said.

The team at the museum believes the ship sank around 1750, when Europe’s appetite for consumerism was beginning to take hold. As merchants moved everything from raw materials to luxury goods, such as porcelain, chandeliers and even grain, through growing international shipping networks, this vessel may have been caught in the middle of a rapidly changing world.

However, researchers still do not know exactly where the ship came from or where it was headed. So far, only a fraction of the cargo has been recovered and desalinated.

“Every find that we have made is part of a great puzzle, a jigsaw. Every piece has to be put together to solve the whole mystery about the trade route of this ship,” said Ahrens.

Looking ahead, the team hopes to begin a full-scale excavation soon. For now, a selection of the recovered treasures is on display in Oslo, with plans underway for a larger permanent exhibition at the Norwegian Maritime Museum.

Opened on June 2, the exhibition will run through September 1.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that rising global conflicts, impunity and emerging technologies are increasing the risk of mass atrocities, urging the international community to act “before warning signs become mass graves.”

The world sees “widespread violations of international law and a growing sense of impunity,” Guterres said in remarks to the UN General Assembly on the Responsibility to Protect, delivered by his chef de cabinet, Earle Courtenay Rattray.

The Responsibility to Protect commitment is “more vital than ever,” he said.

In 2025, the world faced more than 120 conflicts that have become “more protracted, more complex, and more interconnected,” said Guterres.

The UN chief warned that technology is heightening the danger, with sophisticated and increasingly autonomous new weaponry, including drones, able to inflict massive harm on populations, and online hate speech, misinformation and disinformation are spread and amplified in an instant.

“Too often, early warning signs are ignored. And responses are often too little, too late. This report makes specific calls to strengthen the Responsibility to Protect norm for this new era of instability and geopolitical risk,” he said in the remarks delivered by Rattray.

Noting that 21 years ago, world leaders made a milestone commitment to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, Guterres said each state has a primary responsibility to protect its own people. When national authorities fail to do so, UN member states have committed to taking collective, timely and decisive action in line with the UN Charter, he said.

While prevention begins at home, it can be supported collectively, he added.

The UN secretary-general noted that the report being discussed, the 18th since the Responsibility to Protect commitment was made, takes stock of two decades of progress and makes specific calls to strengthen the Responsibility to Protect norm for this new era of instability and geopolitical risk.

“At the national level, it (the report) calls on Member States to invest in national prevention and protection programming, and forge partnerships with civil society by designating focal points and establishing new domestic institutional arrangements,” the remarks said.

“At the regional level and the multilateral levels, it calls for integrating atrocity prevention right across all the tools of peacemaking, conflict prevention and humanitarian efforts — including mediation and preventive diplomacy and dialogue, as well as security, technological, human rights and accountability frameworks,” said the remarks.

Stressing that the Responsibility to Protect goes to the heart of the mission at the United Nations, Guterres encouraged UN member states to join and implement relevant international legal instruments, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Guterres called on member states to ensure that atrocity prevention and protecting populations become permanent and universal practice everywhere.