해외반출 불교문화재의 환수에 관한국제법적 논의와 정책적 제안

Abstract

For the purpose of more efficient cultural property repatriation, the international community has been making an effort through the UNESCO. At the same time, the UNIDROIT has been assisting to facilitate repatriating cultural property by converging the relevant national laws into a more standardized form. The most representative international norms concerned with cultural property repatriation initiated by those two international entities are “1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property” (the UNESCO Convention 1970) and “1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects” (the UNIDROIT Convention 1995). The Republic of Korea is not yet joined to the UNIDROIT Convention 1995. Considerable amounts of Korean cultural properties had been deprived and illegally exported to foreign countries since the end of Dea Han Empire in 18th centuries, in particular during the Japanese illegal occupation period. In particular, it is understood that Japan has the largest collection of Korean cultural assets. While the Cultural Heritage Administration of the Republic of Korea, and Jogye Order (the largest Buddhism Order in Korea) have tried to bring those cultural heritages back to the place where they were, it seems to be taking more time to do so. In addition to such official efforts, the repatriation of Gilt-bronze Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva Statue, originally owned by Buseok Temple, Korea, from Japan raised public attention on bringing back Korean cultural heritage to its home country. This article does focus distinctively on illegally exported Korean Buddhism cultural properties, while the previous preceding studies have focused only on the overall consideration of illegally exported Korean cultural heritages. And the author analyses the existing international legal frameworks and proposes desirable policy-directions for repatriation of the stolen Korean Buddhism cultural properties.