President Lee Myung-bak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy established conditions for the return of books from the Oegyujanggak Korean royal archives, which were ransacked during an 1866 French incursion. The books will be returned under a five-year renewable lease, bringing the books back to their homeland for the first time in 144 years.
Discussions on returning the volumes to Korea commenced in 1993, when President Kim Young-sam and President François Mitterrand held bilateral talks during the French president’s state visit to Seoul.
Presidents Kim and Mitterrand agreed to two-way exchanges and permanent leases for cultural properties. However, French laws forbidding the removal of national cultural properties meant that the books were never returned. Seventeen years of negotiations followed before Presidents Lee and Sarkozy were able to come to an agreement on how to return the Oegyujanggak books.
During summit talks on the sidelines of the G20 Seoul Summit, President Sarkozy conveyed his willingness to return the Oegyujanggak manuscripts on a five-year renewable loan, in compliance with France’s domestic laws. President Lee responded that it was a substantive measure that will have a positive effect on the relationship between France and Korea.
The Korea Cultural Heritage Policy Research Institute and some scholars have argued against the five-year renewable lease, claiming that the Korean government will be sending other national cultural properties to France in exchange.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, however, rejected these claims. They reasserted that the agreement is a major step forward, and that no cultural properties are being sent to France to secure the lease.
The ministry also said that some of the books are to be displayed in France from 2013 to 2015, celebrating the 130th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Seoul and Paris. However, the books are to return to Korea after the French exhibition ends.
Meanwhile, the current administration is considering assembling a restoration task force to oversee agreements relating to the return of both the French-held Oegyujanggak books and the 1,205 volumes of Joseon royal books that Japan recently pledged to return. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea are currently working together to retrieve as many cultural properties as possible.
About Oegyujanggak
The Oegyujanggak, an annex of the Gyujanggak royal library, was established by King Jeongjo on Ganghwa Island in 1782 for the purpose of storing royal records, called “Uigwe.” These collections are considered to be one of Korea’s most important pieces of documentary heritage.
| The Oegyujanggak royal archives (Courtesy the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea) |
The Joseon Uigwe stored in the Oegyujanggak were seized in 1866, during the French invasion of Ganghwa Island. Some of the books were destroyed by French troops, and the rest were sent to France and stored in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
The whereabouts of the missing Oegyujanggak volumes remained unknown until Park Byung-sun, an ethnically Korean researcher at the National LIbrary of France, discovered 297 Uigwe volumes there in 1975.
By Hwang Dana
Korea.net Staff Writer
