▲ This photo, shows the dancheong of Sungnyemun Gate that has been peeled off after three months of restoration. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

 

▲ This photo, shows investigators from the Yongsan Police Station, investigating the allegation of use of chemical pigments by dancheongjang Hong Chang-won, who led the restoration of Sungnyemun Gate Dancheong. They conducted a detailed investigation, including collecting the dancheong pigment with the National Forensic Service staff at Sungnyemun on the afternoon of July 7, 2014. (Yonhap)

 

 

SEOUL, August 17 (Yonhap) -- Dancheongjang (refers to either the skill of dancheong painting or an artisan skilled in this type of painting) Hong Chang-won, and his disciple, Mr. Han, who used cheap chemical pigments and chemical adhesives instead of natural pigments in the process of restoring the dancheong (refers to Korean traditional decorative coloring on wooden buildings and artifacts for the purpose of style) of Sungnyemun Gate, which was destroyed in a fire in 2008, is to pay a large amount of compensation to the state.

According to the legal officials on Tuesday, the Seoul Central District Court ordered "Hong Chang-won and his disciple, Mr. Han, to pay 945.5 million won and the delayed damages" on August 10.

If this judgement is finalized, Dancheongjang Hong and Mr. Han will have to pay about 1.4 billion won to the government in addition to the delay damages which are calculated at 5% per annum from February 2013, when the Dancheong restoration was completed.

Dancheongjang Hong, who was a holder of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage, was in charge of the restoration work of Dancheong for Sungnyemun Gate from August 2012 to February 2013.

While Dancheongjang Hong told the Cultural Heritage Administration that he was confident in the traditional technique for the restoration process, his experience of restoring dancheong using traditional techniques was only when he briefly participated in the construction work of his master's in 1970.

Although for the first month or so, he used the traditional technique of using natural pigments and traditional adhesives, the color did not turn up well and as the weather got colder, the traditional glue became agglutinated to each other.

In order to shorten the construction period, Dancheongjang Hong and Mr. Han broke the contract and began using chemical pigments and chemical adhesive acrylic emulsion. It has also been investigated that they mostly worked early in the morning to avoid supervision.

Like this, the dancheong was eventually peeled off after 3 months of restoration.

In March 2017, the government filed a lawsuit against Dancheongjang Hong and Mr.Han, demanding a compensation of 1.18 billion won needed for the restoration of dancheong for Sungnyemun Gate. 

In the trial, Dancheongjang Hong and Mr. Han argued that the compensation for damages could not be established, reasoning that it could not be concluded that the dancheong had peeled off solely because they used a mixture of chemical pigments.

Based on the results of experiments and appraisals at the National Institute of Cultural Heritage, the court partially acknowledged their claims, saying, "It is not enough to admit that the cracks and peelings of dancheong at Sungnyemun Gate were caused by the use of mixed materials by the defendants."

However, the court pointed out, "the defendants had an obligation to restore the dancheong using traditional materials which were discussed with the Cultural Heritage Administration."

"Using a mixture of chemical pigment itself goes against the traditional method of restoring the dancheong of Sungnyemun Gate and so, violates the contract," the court mentioned. "The defendants committed an illegal act of restoring the dancheong of Sungnyemun Gate as they used the method contrary to the method negotiated with the Cultural Heritage Administration."

Nevertheless, the court limited their compensation to 80% considering the fact that the dancheong was peeled off in some areas that were constructed with traditional materials and because the Cultural Heritage Administration had requested Dancheongjang Hong to complete the restoration process quickly.

Separately from the civil lawsuit, Dancheongjang Hong was handed over to a criminal trial on charges of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, Etc. of Specific Economic Crimes in May 2015 and was sentenced to two years and six months in prison. In 2017, the Cultural Heritage Administration disqualified him from being a holder of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

 

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Haemin Kim.)

 

 

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