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| The royal seal of Queen Munjeong / Courtesy of Cultural Heritage Administration |
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Two royal seals from the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) illegally taken out of Korea around 65 years ago were returned home on the presidential plane Sunday evening with President Moon Jae-in heading back to Korea from his first diplomatic trip.
The royal seal of Queen Munjeong and the royal seal of King Hyeonjong were displayed at the South Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., Friday (local time) and the Korean representative Kim Yeon-soo, director of the National Palace Museum of Korea, received the certificate of transfer from American representative Thomas D. Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rep. An Min-suk of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, who contributed to getting the royal seals returned, also attended the ceremony.
The Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) said the legal processes for returning the royal seals were completed in early June, but the two countries agreed to officially hold the ceremony during the Korea-U.S. summit.
The looted royal seals surfaced when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquired the royal seal of Queen Munjeong from an American collector in 2000. The U.S. Homeland Security Investigations confiscated the seal and the royal seal of King Hyeonjong, which was also in possession of the collector who purchased them in Japan, at the request of CHA.
This is the third case of Korean cultural property being returned home through cooperative investigations between Korea and the U.S., following "Hojotaehwangwon," the first paper bill in Korea, retrieved in 2013 and nine state seals in 2014.
The two redeemed seals are similar in size ― 10x10 centimeters ― and have a turtle-shaped handle, but are made from different materials.
The royal seal of Queen Munjeong is in guilt bronze and produced in 1547, the second year of King Myeongjong's reign, to honor Queen Munjeong (1501-1565). She was the third wife of the 11th Joseon Dynasty king, Jungjong, and the mother of King Myeongjong. King Myeongjong created the seal to commemorate a eulogistic title given to the queen when she was ruling as regent.
King Hyeonjong's royal seal is made from jade and was created in 1651 to mark when he was proclaimed the crown prince.
Eobo is the name of a royal seal used for ceremonial purposes, different from "guksae," or the great seal, which was for official use such as on administrative or diplomatic documents. The royal seals represent the legitimacy and authority of the state and royal family and they were controlled strictly by Jongmyo (the royal ancestral shrine) from the production process.
During the Joseon Kingdom and the Korean Empire, a total of 37 seals of the state and 375 royal seals were produced. Many of them were stolen during the Japanese occupation (1910-1945) and the Korean War (1950-53) and four state seals and seven royal seals were retrieved since 1952. The CHA can still not account for 29 state seals and 46 seals as of now.
The seals will be stored and managed by the National Palace Museum of Korea, a subsidiary of the CHA. The CHA said the relics will be on public view during a special exhibit during August.
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