South Korea has retrieved a century-old currency printing plate that was illegally taken to the United States by a thief during the 1950-53 Korean War, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The metal printing plate, made in 1892 under the rule of King Gojong of Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) to print the nation's first modern currency, was stolen in 1951 by a U.S. serviceman who came to fight in the Korean War, they said. At the time it was being kept at Seoul's Deoksu Palace, one of the royal palaces from Joseon era.
Experts say that the plate holds significant academic and historical value as it has ushered in modern currency printing methods in Korea, although it was not actually used to print money.
The retrieval came about as a result of a multiagency investigation helped by the U.S. government, the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office said in a joint press release with the Cultural Heritage Administration.
U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Sung Y. Kim will deliver the plate to the Cultural Heritage Administration next Tuesday, the prosecution said.
The plate's whereabouts was learned in 2010 when it was put up for auction in Michigan at Midwest Auction Galleries. The auction house pushed ahead with the sale despite a request from the South Korean Embassy in the U.S. to stop it, and the item was sold to a Korean-American man, only identified by his surname Yoon, for US$35,000.
In January of this year, both Yoon and the owner of the auction house, Jame Amato, were arrested by U.S. authorities for acquiring and circulating a stolen item, respectively, according to prosecutors.
The supreme prosecutors' office said it will make efforts to recover other stolen artifacts through conducting joint investigations with foreign authorities. (Yonhap News)
