A Buddhist portray courting to the late Joseon Dynasty has been returned to Korea from the US, about 70 years after it’s believed to have been faraway from a temple within the aftermath of the 1950–53 Korean Struggle.
The Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York stated Friday it has repatriated “Siwangdo” — certainly one of a 10-piece sequence depicting the ten kings of the afterlife — to Sinheung Temple within the jap coastal metropolis of Sokcho.
Painted in 1798 throughout the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the work is believed to have been taken illicitly from the temple’s Myeongbujeon, a corridor devoted to the ten kings, in 1954, when Korea was underneath U.S. navy administration.
A 1942 survey by the Japanese government-general of Korea recorded the portray’s presence on the temple, and its existence can be documented in images taken by U.S. navy officers between 1953 and 1954.
Six panels from the “Siwangdo” set had been returned to Korea in 2020 from the Los Angeles County Museum of Artwork (LACMA), however 4, together with the one newly repatriated, have remained abroad.
The portray, measuring 116.8 centimeters lengthy and 91.4 cm large, portrays the tenth and ultimate king who judges the useless based on Buddhist perception.
The return was made potential via cooperation among the many Abroad Korean Cultural Heritage Basis, the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, Sinheung Temple and an area civic group campaigning for the restoration of cultural property taken overseas.
Lee Sang-rae, who leads the Sokcho-based activist group, stated the portray “seems to have been taken to the U.S. round 1954, instantly after the Korean Struggle.”
The Met acquired the panel in 2007. Temple officers and civic activists recognized the work on the museum’s web site and commenced formal discussions for its return in 2023 after verifying its provenance.
“The ‘Siwangdo’ items held by LACMA and the Met seem to have been taken overseas at totally different occasions,” Lee stated. “We ready varied supplies to show the portray originated from Sinheung Temple and to make clear the timing of its elimination.”
Relating to how the 2 museums got here to accumulate their respective panels, he added: “We initially believed that they had been held by the identical earlier proprietor, however that was not the case. We plan to proceed trying to find the remaining three items.”
The six “Siwangdo” panels beforehand repatriated stay in storage at Sinheung Temple. The newly returned piece will likely be housed alongside them, with officers set to contemplate choices for future public show.
