Lost and Found at Sea, or a Shipwreck’s Art History

To be lost and found at sea: What kinds of thinking does the shipwreck prompt? This essay pursues this question by centering fragmented remains—large beeswax blocks Chinese porcelain ware—from Santo Cristo de Burgos, a Spanish galleon while traveling from Manila to Acapulco end seventeenth century. By considering how durable commodities were recovered reimagined, primarily Indigenous inhabi­tants Oregon coast, reflects upon histories that can written around because wrecked ships. Tacking between past present, we use Burgos draw out lineaments shipwreck’s art history, bringing into focus three interrelated themes, each critical material wrecks: interpretive recalcitrance cargo, reframing value through recovery, production surplus in watery depths.