With a Global Petition, VANK created the digital posters in Korean, English, and Chinese that tells internationally what is the “Ogura Collection,” a symbol of plundered cultural properties overseas.
The digital poster convicts Ogura Takenosuke(1870~1964), who illegally smuggled out about 1,100 Korean national treasure-class relics during the Japanese occupation period.
Even though, during the Japanese colonial era, we were not able to condemn his crimes, but now we had put the global petition link on the poster as we address and report the intention of international judgement through a Global Petition.
The Ogura Collection contains relics of the highest value among Korean cultural assets located abroad collected by individuals.
For this reason, the Korean government requested the return of the Ogura Collection during the 4th Korea-Japan Talks on Cultural Heritage Committee meeting in 1958, but the Japanese government refused to return the Ogura Collection because it was deemed as private property.
VANK reports the international community of Ogura Takenosuke’s crimes of not being properly judged through a digital poster, and through this, it allows people around the world to participate in Global Petition for the return of smuggled out cultural properties.
You can download and distribute the digital posters through VANK’s web site, Flickr, Facebook and blog.