Serious theft and loss of non-designated and private cultural assets... Jin Seon-mi urges strengthened crime prevention and security budget

Damage concentrated on non-designated and private cultural properties... Jin Seon-mi "Strengthens crime prevention and security budget"

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lim Soon-hyeon = The 'Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon Sangju version' stolen in 2008 is the same copy as the national treasure 'Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon Gansong version', which is registered as a World Record Heritage. It is a cultural asset with important academic and cultural historical value and significance, but its whereabouts have not been found even after 18 years.

The national treasure 'Sowonhwa Gaecheop' has not been seen since 25 years after it was stolen from the owner's home in 2001. It is a work written by Prince Anpyeong, the third son of King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty, before he was caught up in a power struggle and was killed by his second brother, Prince Suyang (later King Sejo), at the young age of 35.

In this way, it was found that more than 8 out of 10 stolen or lost Korean cultural assets are still missing.

According to data received from the National Heritage Administration on the 5th by Jin Seon-mi, a member of the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, of the 22,062 stolen or lost cultural assets reported from 1999 to September 2026, only 4,012 (18.2%) were recovered. It is not even known where the 18,050 items (81.8%) that were not recovered were leaked.

In terms of the number of reports, out of a total of 601 cases, 589 cases were theft and the remaining 12 cases were loss. Only 14.7% (88 cases) of cases were closed because cultural properties were completely recovered after the theft occurred, and 77.0% (463 cases) of all cases were found to be completely unrecovered, with not a single piece of damaged cultural property recovered.

Most of the stolen or lost cultural assets were ‘non-designated cultural heritage’. Non-designated cultural heritage sites, which had relatively weak legal protection networks and security management systems, were becoming the main targets of crime. While nationally designated cultural heritages accounted for 29 points (4.8%) and city/provincial designated cultural heritages accounted for 111 points (18.5%), non-designated cultural heritages amounted to 461 cases (76.7%).

By ownership and management entity, most of the damage (85.5%) was to private and religious organizations such as temples, academies, and local schools (224 cases, 37.2%) and families and individuals (290 cases, 48.3%), compared to public institutions such as state-owned (12 cases, 2.0%) or local governments and schools (69 cases, 11.5%). It is pointed out that it is urgent to prepare crime prevention measures for privately owned cultural properties.

Rep. Jin said, "The miserable recovery rate of '18.2%' is clear evidence of how passive the national tracking and recovery system has been," and added, "We need to significantly strengthen the budget support for crime prevention and security facilities at the national level for the management of privately owned cultural properties with weak security, such as temples, academies, clans, and individuals."