Return of royal texts

It was touching to see looted royal books of the Joseon Kingdom arrive in Seoul 145 years after invading French soldiers took them away. The texts returned to a hero???s welcome as they are the symbol of national pride. Their return confirms that cultural properties do themselves justice in their original locations.
On Thursday, the first 75 books of the 297-volume royal documents came home. They had been kept in the Oegyuganggak archive on Ganghwa Island off the west coast until the 1866 French invasion. The remaining books will be sent back by May as agreed upon between President Lee Myung-bak and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy on the sidelines of the G20 Seoul Summit last November.
Strictly speaking, the arrival of the pillaged cultural assets is not a return but a lease that can be renewed every five years. The texts are still in the possession of the French government that does not want to change its property status of the items. Many Koreans are uneasy about the French ownership.
No doubt the looting cannot and should not be justified. However, French officials apparently believe the pillaging can be legitimatized because there was no international convention outlawing the plunder of cultural properties at the time of the invasion.
It is often said that history is on the side of conquerors. But it is absurd to claim that the Korean royal books are the French property by law. Before signing the lease contract, France should have admitted that they obtained the texts by illegal means. Now we urge the Europeans to join international efforts to return illegally obtained cultural properties to countries of origin.
Of course, we believe that France has taken a realistic approach toward the royal documents. It does not want the Korean case to set a precedent that could prompt other countries to demand return of their cultural assets plundered by the French.
The Korean government has also compromised to accept the lease agreement, fearing that it might have gotten nothing from demanding ownership of the royal books. The compromise should not imply that the nation has given legitimacy to the French government???s illicit acquirement.
South Korea should not be satisfied with a return-on-lease formula. The French stole more than 340 other Korean cultural assets during the 19th-century attack.
Seoul has to start negotiations with Paris to find a way of retrieving the relics. It should also step up efforts for the return of more than 100,000 Korean cultural properties from the U.S., Japan and other countries that were looted or smuggled out mostly during the 1910-45 Japanese rule and the 1950-53 Korean War. It is our obligations to get back what our ancestors left behind. Don???t pass the buck to our children or grandchildren.