In June 2011, France returned to South Korea nearly 300 volumes of Korean royal archives from the Joseon Dynasty. French forces had seized them in an 1866 military campaign, and the volumes had resided in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) ever since. The return is not a legally permanent restitution, but rather a five-year renewable loan. The compromise followed years of unsuccessful negotiations and a noteworthy decision of a French administrative tribunal that found that the seized Korean archives constituted inalienable French property. The legal debate over the Korean manuscripts illustrates the unique complexities of treating archives as a form of cultural property in armed conflict. In the end, the imperfect compromise satisfies neither side: The BnF is deprived of custody of items that have formed part of its collections for more than 140 years while technically, and perhaps uselessly, retaining formal legal title; South Korea, meanwhile, has physical custody of the archives while suffering the indignity of being denied ownership over its own national heritage.
The prominent role of the SAA in the recent controversy over the fate of Iraqi records and archives highlights crucial questions about the tension between national and international interests in archives and the role of archives and archivists during armed conflict. This article seeks to frame these questions and fill gaps in the debate within the archival community about wartime preservation, controversies over the postwar return of archives, and the role of archivists in war. Archivists will undoubtedly face such issues, which have never been more complex or more relevant, again in the future; this article seeks to promote renewed, vigorous, and respectful debate.
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