KOREAN HERITAGE

A painting known as Five Buddhas was stolen from Songgwangsa Temple in the 1970s but finally returned home late last year after an extended absence of about 50 years, a product of active cooperation between Korea and the United States.

Songgwangsa Temple

Located in the southwestern province of Jeollanam-do, Songgwangsa Temple on Mt. Jogyesan is a historic Seon (known as Zen in Japanese) monastery identified as one of the Three Jewels of Korean Buddhism alongside Tongdosa and Haeinsa Temples. While Tongdosa and Haeinsa respectively represent the Buddha and the Dharma, Songgwangsa stands for the Sangha, or the Buddhist community. It has for centuries lived up to this association as the base of monastic practice for a number of renowned Buddhist monks.

Five Buddhas is an 18th-century work which was long housed at Songgwangsa. It is part of a suite of Buddhist paintings depicting the Fifty-three Buddhas that has been praised as one of the definitive efforts of Monk Ui Gyeum, the foremost painter-monk of the 18th century. Produced in 1725, Fifty-three Buddhas, a valuable type of Buddhist painting that can be found at only a few temples, including Songgwangsa, was created as a seven-piece compendium—one painting of the seven Buddhas, two of the nine Buddhas, two of the thirteen Buddhas, and two of the five Buddhas.

Discovery of Five Buddhas

Traditionally adorning the interior walls alongside the entrances of Buljojeon Hall of Songgwangsa, the two depictions of the five Buddhas were temporarily transferred to a different room in the temple during the refurbishment of Buljojeon in 1969–70, but disappeared with no clues as to their whereabouts. The Five Buddhas that was repatriated to Korea late last year stood at the entrance on the left, but the one to the right remains missing. It has been revealed that the Five Buddhas to the left appeared in an antique shop in Mary’s Alley (part of the Insa-dong neighborhood) in central Seoul. Tattered and folded, the painting had been placed in a chest. The American art teacher Robert Mattielli, who was living in Seoul at the time, spotted the painting while browsing through wooden furniture. After purchasing the worn painting, he had it restored and framed as it is seen today. When Mattielli and his wife Sandra returned to the United States in 1985, the Five Buddhas traveled with them. The Mattiellis eventually donated the Korean Buddhist artwork to the Portland Art Museum in the United States in 2014.

In the same year the Mattiellis entrusted Five Buddhas to the Portland Art Museum, the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, a research arm of the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea, happened to be visiting the museum to conduct a survey of the museum’s holdings of Korean origin. During this survey and cataloguing, scholars from Korea discovered that this Five Buddhas was the version stolen from Songgwangsa. Working in close cooperation with the Jogye Order, the largest denomination of Korean Buddhism, the Cultural Heritage Administration informed the museum of the illegal provenance of the Korean Buddhist painting and asked it to serve as an intermediary in persuading the Mattiellis to repatriate it. Once informed of the full story behind the work, the Mattiellis gladly supported the cause of returning Five Buddhas to its country of origin.

Five Buddhas Returned Home

The left entrance of Buljojeon Hall where Five Buddhas was originally placed

With the repatriation of Five Buddhas fully planned, the Portland Art Museum commemorated the historic occasion by holding a special exhibition and symposium on this Korean Buddhist artwork, during which the Cultural Heritage Administration and the Jogye Order exchanged with the museum a plaque of appreciation and a letter of donation. Five Buddhas finally came to rest in its home country in December 2016. It first arrived at the Central Buddhist Museum in central Seoul and was then restored to its original place of collection, Songgwangsa Temple.

A plan has been made for the Jogye Order and Songgwangsa Temple to organize a conference on the religious and academic significance of the Five Buddhas in May 2017. The occasion will be used to express thanks to the Portland Art Museum and the Mattiellis by inviting them to the event.

The Recipe for a Successful Repatriation

The successful return of Five Buddhas owes in large part to the deep affection possessed by the Mattiellis toward Korean art. It was they who conserved the Five Buddhas, which was extremely worn and deteriorating rapidly when they first found it. Without their conservation efforts, this valuable Korean Buddhist artwork might not have survived to the present.

The Portland Art Museum can also claim a large share of credit. Its genuine appreciation of the significance of the historical Buddhist painting to Korean society and its active role as intermediary were indispensable to the successful homecoming of Five Buddhas to Songgwangsa Temple after five decades.