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2 royal seals return to Korea as agreed on 2015 Korea-US Summit

2 royal seals return to Korea as agreed on 2015 Korea-US Summit

Posted June. 10, 2017 07:30,   

Updated June. 10, 2017 07:34

한국어
Royal seals of Queen Munjeong and King Hyeonjon (called the eobo) will be returned to Korea soon. Leaders of Korea and the U.S. agreed to return cultural properties of the Joseon Dynasty promptly during the 2015 summit. Those cultural properties were taken abroad illegally.

The Cultural Heritage Administration announced on Friday that the U.S. authority completed legal procedures to confiscate these two cultural properties and they will be unveiled in the National Palace Museum of Korea at the earliest by August.

The two royal stamps were owned by Robert Moore, an ancient Korean art collector, and the seal of Queen Munjeong was acquired by and exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2000. The U.S. authority confiscated the two seals as it was alleged that they were smuggled out of Korea during the Korean War in September 2013.

The seal of Queen Munjeong was created in honor of the posthumous name (an honorary name given to royalty to praise one’s virtue) of Seongnyeol daewang daebi (the great royal dowager queen of the great king of Seongneol) and the seal of Hyeongjong was made to commemorate the investiture of Hyojong as the crown prince in the second year of Hyojong (1651).

The leaders of Korea and the U.S. agreed to promptly return the cultural properties in October 2015 but it was delayed due to trials and other relating matters. It is the third time that the two governments cooperated with each other to return the cultural assets and they were the original edition of the first note of Korea issued by Gojong in 1893, the great seal of Korean empire and eight other seals.



Jong-Yeob JO jjj@donga.com