Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
China asks Korea to help find lost mural
By Kim Rahn
China has sought Korea’s help in restoring a mural of the Goguryeo tombs which it claims was stolen and brought to Korea from its territory.
The Chinese State Administration of Cultural Heritage recently sent a request to the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea to confirm whether the “stolen” mural paintings are in Korea, according to the Korean agency Wednesday.
It said it has concluded three grave robbers took murals from tombs of the Goguryeo Kingdom, located in Jian, China, to Korea in the late 1990s. Gugyryeo (37 B.C.-A.D. 668) was an ancient kingdom of Korea, and a large part of its territory now belongs to China.
According to the Chinese authorities the robbers, who were executed, testified that an official of the Korean Antique’s Association instigated the theft of the murals and exported them to Korea. The request has come about three months after Korean broadcaster MBC reported the story.
Related Korean authorities say they do not know whether the murals were actually brought here or not.
“The Chinese authorities did not ask us to restore the paintings, because it has to be confirmed first whether they are really in Korea,” an official of the administration’s international affairs division said.
The official said China asked Korea to cooperate in returning the murals to the tombs.
“China says it understands the murals are in Korea. But it hasn’t been confirmed. When suspicions arose police raided the association and some antique dealers to no avail,” he said.
He added related authorities will take proper action according to domestic and international rules.
“If the murals were illegally taken out of China and brought here, Korea is obliged to restore them because the two nations are under UNESCO’s Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property,” the official said.
Three ethnic Korean-Chinese were caught in 2003 for stealing and selling a dozen mural paintings from Goguryeo tombs over seven occasions between 1997 and 2000. They were put to death.
One of the tombs, Samsilchong, is presumed to be a tomb of a noble soldier. Murals of another tomb, Jangcheon No. 1, part of Jangcheon Tomb Complex, are recognized for their historic value as they depict religious life and customs during the Goguryeo era.
Regarding the illicit imports, Kim Jong-choon, head of the antique’s association, said the group is unrelated to the robbery. “We have nothing to do with the matter. But we think Korean cultural property should be in Korea. So if there really are Goguryeo murals, please bring them to me and I’ll buy them,” Kim said in an earlier press release.
By Kim Rahn
중국, 한국에 도굴 벽화 반환 요구
중국이 한국으로부터 도난 당한 고구려 벽화를 찾고 싶다며 한국 정부에 도움을 요청했다.
중국국가문물국은 수요일 한국 문화재청에 도난 당한 벽화들이 한국에 존재하는지의 확인을 요청했다.
중국 당국은 3명의 도굴꾼이 1990년대 말 길림성 즙안에 있는 고구려 고분군에서 벽화를 훔쳐갔다고 밝혔다. 고구려는 한국의 고대 왕국이며 넓은 영토를 갖고 있었지만 지금은 일부가 중국의 영토가 되었다.
중국 당국에 따르면 이 도굴꾼들은 법에 따라 형을 선고 받았으며, 한국 고미술 협회의 간부로부터 교사를 받아 범행해 한국으로 넘어갔다고 증언했다. 중국은 MBC에서 이 같은 내용을 방송한 3개월 뒤에 요구했다.
그러나 한국 당국은 벽화의 소재파악이 되고 있지 않다고 전했다.
관계자는 “만약 벽화가 불법적으로 반입 된 거라면, 한국은 국제 공약에 따라 그들의 요구를 받아들일 것이다” 고 밝혔다.
한편 한국고미술협회 회장 김종춘은 이 도굴꾼들은 협회와 어떠한 관계도 없다고 밝혔다.