[MSN] A 48-year-old South Korean man, who was arrested on suspicion of stealing a number of items considered cultural assets, is believed to have approached one of the original owners to offer him the chance to buy back a stolen Buddhist painting.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Art theft suspect seen as part of network
The Yomiuri Shimbun

A 48-year-old South Korean man, who was arrested on suspicion of stealing a
number of items considered cultural assets, is believed to have approached
one of the original owners to offer him the chance to buy back a stolen
Buddhist painting, it has been learned. 

Kim Jae Chil is currently on trial for stealing Korean Buddhist paintings
from the 10th to 14th centuries, including ones designated cultural assets
of national importance. The paintings were taken from two temples, one in
Aichi Prefecture in August 2005 and the other in Fukui Prefecture in
September 2006. 

According to the police, Kim came to Japan and visited Kakurinji temple in
Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, in May 2005. He is said to have arranged a
meeting with a resident priest, Eisei Miki, 69, at a hotel in Seoul, and to
have asked him to buy back a Korean Buddhist painting designated an
important cultural asset that had been stolen from the temple in July 2002
by another criminal gang. 

No sale was agreed upon at the time. 

Kim is quoted by police as saying: "I met a man at a casino in Seoul,
calling himself Pak, who claimed to be a company president. He told me that
if I sold the painting to the original owner for 30 million yen, he would
pay me 6 million yen." 

The police suspect Kim is part of a network dealing in stolen goods. 

In 1995, about the same time a TV program on antique appraisals became
popular in South Korea, the number of thefts of antique artwork in that
country increased sharply. 

The Seoul Police Agency last year arrested a man who had stolen 2,358
Buddhist statues or paintings, worth about 1.05 billion yen, from across the
country. 

In Japan, 52 pieces of artwork and other crafts designated as cultural
assets of national importance, including eight national treasures, were
still missing as of October 2006, according to the Cultural Affairs Agency. 

The Buddhist scripture, "Dai Hannya Kyo," which is designated an important
national cultural asset, was stolen in 1994 from Ankokuji temple in Nagasaki
Prefecture, and then discovered to have been designated as a Korean national
treasure in 1995. 

The Japanese government asked the South Korean government to cooperate with
its investigation into the case, but procuratorial authorities in Seoul said
the last buyer was bona-fide as they did not know the item had been stolen.
The scripture has therefore not been returned to Japan. 

According to the agency, other than in museums, the security in place for
cultural assets in Japan is relatively light. 

"All we can do is call for a tightening of security to prevent the artworks
from being stolen," an agency spokesman said. 

(Feb. 26, 2007)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/