The Metropolitan Museum of Art returned a 16th-century Buddhist painting believed to have been removed from a temple by the United States Army during the Korean War, the institution announced today, November 18.
“The Tenth King of Hell” (1798), an ink painting on silk scroll, will go home to the Sinheungsa Temple in Sokcho, South Korea. In The Met’s collection since the museum purchased it in 2007, it was included in its 2008 Arts of Korea exhibition and its Korean Art exhibition in 2012. To mark its return, the institution held a ceremony in Seoul on Friday, November 14, attended by Met Director Max Hollein, the mayor of Sokcho, and Chief Monk Ji-hye of the Sinheungsa Temple.
While The Met did not detail the circumstances under which the painting was taken, local media reported that the work was removed 71 years ago, suggesting that the transgression occurred at the end of the war or shortly thereafter. According to the Chosun Daily, photos of US troops at the temple and residents’ testimony attested to the circumstances of the painting’s removal.
“When we showed Met officials a photo of U.S. soldiers splitting wooden printing blocks from Shinhungsa Temple to make a fire for coffee, they were shocked and even teared up,” Chairman of the Sokcho City Cultural Heritage Repatriation Committee Lee Sang-rae told Chosun Daily.
In 2023, following media scrutiny surrounding the provenance of some objects in The Met’s collection and the seizure of looted items by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, the institution announced internal efforts to investigate its collection. The painting’s repatriation follows several other notable returns earlier this year, including objects sent back to Iraq, Italy, and Spain.
The Met returned “Vessel Stand with Ibex” (2,500 BCE) to Iraq in September. (photo Paul Lachenauer)
The work is from a 10-painting series portraying the Buddhist Ten Kings of Hell, who determine the fate of the deceased, including punishment and the cycle of rebirth, according to the faith tradition. This particular scroll depicts the Tenth King, dressed as a warrior and surrounded by underworld attendants. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art previously returned six scrolls from the series to the temple, according to a press release from The Met.
The Met returned “Vessel Stand with Ibex,” dated to 2500 BCE, to Iraq in September. In a research project supported by the nation, The Met uncovered evidence that the ibex figure in the work was one of the oldest examples of the use of clay in the direct lost-wax casting technique, which is still used to create large metal sculptures today.
Months earlier, The Met returned three ancient sculptures — “Vessel supported by two rams” (2600–2500 BCE), “Head of a female” (2000–1600 BCE), and “Head of a male” (2000–1600 BCE) — to Iraq after conducting provenance research. At one point, two of the sculptures had been sold by the notorious British antiquities dealer Robin Symes.
Over the summer, The Met returned 14 ancient objects to Italy, including Tarantine sculptures believed to have originated in Egypt during the Roman era, and two harness pendants from the 6th and 7th centuries to Spain. Three of the works returned to Italy, two terracotta antefixes and a fragmented terracotta bowl, are still on view at the museum on loan.
