By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
In February, two looted Chinese relics were sold at the French house of auction giant Christie's for 14 million euros ($17.92 million). But China had tried to dissuade Christie's from auctioning the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) bronze rabbit and rat head sculptures, because they were looted from Yuanmingyuan, the Old Summer Palace, by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.
The case has renewed debate over the jurisdiction of ``stolen'' relics mostly taken during the period of Western expansion.
At this point, ``Cleopatra's Needle'' written by former ambassador Kim Kyeong-im is quite relevant to explore the stories of looted treasures from around the world mostly by European powers.
Numerous countries including Egypt, China, Greece and also Korea are mourning the loss of priceless heritages.
Then, why do such looters refuse to return acquired relics to the original owners? The retrieval of cultural treasures is one of the world's most thorny issues as it involves political, economic, cultural and international relations and usually takes years of strenuous and extensive efforts.
No country, however, is free from this tough issue because almost every country might be either a looter or a victim.
Such nations as the United Kingdom and France have stuck to the policy that cultural heritages don't belong to a specific nation but to all humanity as a universal value as shown in the Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums adopted by the world's leading museums in 2002.
Also, they argue that it is not pillage but an attempt to protect the relics from danger and destruction. The author says this is the typical logic behind the rejection of returning such treasures.
Wartime looting has, from ancient times, been a symbol of victory. According to the book, cultural heritages mostly belong to the creators or the countries where they were first discovered. Particularly in the case of ancient relics whose origins can be ambiguous, they usually belong to the territory that holds the relics.
However, there is no set rule to legally force the return of looted antiquities to their original sites. There is now only a customary law banning the illegal traffic in archaeological, artistic and ethnic objects.
Historically, Korea was frequently plundered by foreign powers including Japan. The Joseon Kingdom's Uigwe (Royal Protocols) seized by France is just a case in point.
The issue of retrieving these relics only surfaced around the early 1990s in Korea as then French President Francois Mitterrand made remarks over the possibility of their return during a visit to Seoul to export the French high-speed TGV train.
France won the bid and the two governments have since undertaken several rounds of negotiations on the repatriation of the royal protocols but any conclusion is still up in the air.