6ㆍ25 전쟁기 ‘문화재 해외 반출’ 논란의 의미와 성과

Abstract

In July 1950, shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War, the Syngman Rhee government secretly evacuated 204 cultural properties of the National Museum of Korea’s Gyeongju branch to San Francisco, the United States(The first overseas shipment of cultural properties). Following this, the Syngman Rhee government began to evacuate 18,883 cultural properties that had been moved to Busan to Honolulu, the United States, and to display some of them there(The second overseas shipment of cultural properties). The second overseas shipment project, which had been secretly promoted, became known to people when the government submitted a motion to the National Assembly in September 1952. Since then, controversy has begun over the pros and cons of overseas shipments. As the motion submitted to the National Assembly was repeatedly suspended, rejected, and scrapped, controversy over overseas shipments continued for three years, and the government had to submit the motion three times. During the prolonged controversy, the war ended and the main purpose of the government’s overseas shipment was changed from overseas evacuation to overseas exhibition. Eventually, in April 1955, the National Assembly conditionally approved the motion for overseas shipment and exhibition, and the controversy over overseas shipment was concluded. As a result, in Korea and the United States, the first large-scale exhibition of Korean cultural properties was held. In this paper, I specifically examined the flow and aspects of ‘the controversy over the overseas shipment of cultural properties’ and its meaning and performance. The controversy was basically about whether it was appropriate to evacuate Korean cultural properties abroad or whether it was desirable to send our cultural properties abroad to display them. However, it lasted for three years, leading to various discussions on the overall cultural properties beyond the simple controversy over pros and cons. It was the first debate and discussion about the Cultural Heritage in Korea. And it had an important influence on the recognition of cultural properties in our society, the management administration of cultural properties, and the exhibition and enjoyment of cultural properties.