Looted Cultural Properties

It is a sheer crime to pillage cultural properties whether such an act is done by officials, soldiers, businessmen or looters. It should be common principle that a government should return plundered cultural assets, if it possesses any, to countries of their origin. Cultural properties can restore their true value only when they are where they used to be. But many former imperial powers are still tenaciously refusing to send back looted objects to their origins.
A recent decision by a French court is one of the typical examples of ``cultural imperialism,'' which justifies the looting of cultural properties around the world. On Dec. 24, an administrative court in Paris dismissed a suit by a Seoul-based civic group demanding the return of Korea's royal documents, which were plundered by French troops during an 1866 attack on the hermit kingdom of Asia.
But, the court ruled that the Korean royal texts were a ``national property'' currently preserved by the National Library of France, saying that such status cannot be affected by the circumstances of their acquisition. It also stated that it ``was difficult to view that international rules banning pillaging were in place around the time of 1866.'' This means that France will not return the texts to Korea because they are the former's property. The ruling also implies that looting can be legitimized because there was no international convention outlawing the plunder of cultural properties at the time of the French soldiers' seizure of the documents.
It is truly regrettable that the court made such a preposterous and egregious ruling, which may tarnish the image of France as a culturally advanced nation. It is nonsense for the European country to claim that documents of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) are part of its property. In fact, no one denies that the texts are Korea's cultural properties although they are possessed by France. It is also unequivocal that France came to obtain the documents in an illegal manner. Then, how could the court claim that they are French national property?