Figuring out what happened 700 years ago is undoubtedly a daunting task. When there is no official or reliable record, it is almost impossible to confirm things of seven centuries ago.

The Daejon District Court thinks otherwise. With some circumstantial evidence, the court attempted to reconstruct what happened 700 years ago: A seated gilt-bronze statue of Buddha was originally made by and placed in Buseok Temple in what is now South Chungcheong Province in 1330, but it was then stolen by invaders from Japan sometime around 1350. So, the statue should now be returned to the Korean temple as its rightful owner, the court said in its decision of Jan. 26.

The government, the other party in the proceeding, disagrees and has appealed the decision to a higher court. The government points out that there is a lack of evidence proving the statue was “illegally taken” in the 14th century. In the government’s view, the statue should be returned to the current owner, the Kannonji Temple in Tsushima, Japan.

The whole saga started four years ago when a group of tomb raiders from Korea stole the statue from the Kannonji Temple in Tsushima and smuggled it to Korea to sell. The smugglers were arrested but the fate of the statue became precarious as Korea’s Buseok Temple claimed legal title and initiated a legal action to block the government from returning the artifact to Japan. The Daejeon District Court’s judgement is the outcome of this proceeding between the government and Buseok Temple. Japan, of course, has been demanding the return of the statue as soon as possible. The court decision has now registered itself on the Korea-Japan relations radar.

Through the proceeding, it was again confirmed that no one can tell precisely when and how the gilt-bronze statue was taken from the Korean temple and from Korea. As the mid-14th century saw the height of pirates’ plundering of Korean coastal towns, one likely scenario is that the statue crossed the Korean strait in one of the invading vessels. Another scenario is the statue having changed hands through non-illegal means, be it donation, gift or sale. The point is, we may never know. The court searched for evidence, but evidence is scant and sketchy: soot on the fingers of the statue as evidence of forceful plunder, and its making and dedication to the temple in the mid-1300s as other evidence of plunder. These two are too circumstantial and weak to explain what happened 700 years ago.

To put this into perspective, the Goryeo Kingdom ruled Korea at the time, 62 years before the Joseon era even began. This is a time when the Yuan Dynasty of Genghis Khan ruled mainland China, the Hundred Years’ War began between France and England, and the plague killed almost 50 million people in Europe. Absent specific record, how can anyone confirm what happened at that time?

This realization underpins the Cultural Property Administration’s request for the return of the statue to Japan. In the absence of concrete evidence, presumption of lawful ownership of the current owner should stand. This also explains the government’s disagreement with the court decision and appeal to the upper court.

To believe that all Korean artifacts abroad have been transferred illegally and should return to Korea by any means is a risky generalization. Some got there illegally, but some legally. It is heartbreaking to see Korean cultural treasures in the hands of foreigners and located outside Korea, but that emotional feeling does not mean that a Korean national can now bring a cultural property back to Korea forcibly or even illegally. International conventions do not permit it. At any rate, not returning a stolen item to the present owner is hard to justify.

As a result of the decision, foreign museums are becoming cautious about their exchange programs with Korean counterparts. Foreign owners of Korean artifacts are hiding their treasures. Most critically, a decision with stretched imagination would only jeopardize Korea’s other legitimate claims.


By Lee Jae-min

Lee Jae-min is a professor of law at Seoul National University. He can be reached at jaemin@snu.ac.kr. -- Ed.