'Sungnyemun Dancheong Poor Construction' Dancheong Master... Court Orders "9 Billion Won Compensation to Government"

Sungnyemun with Dancheong Peeling Off Three Months After Restoration
(Photo by Asia Economy DB)

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Tae-min] Hong Chang-won, a dancheong master, and his apprentice have been ordered to pay the government a large sum in damages for using chemical materials instead of traditional materials in the restoration work of the dancheong on Sungnyemun, which was destroyed by fire in 2008.

According to the legal community on the 16th, the Civil Division 19 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Min-soo) ruled on the 10th in a damages claim lawsuit filed by the government against Hong and his apprentice Han that "the defendants shall jointly pay 945,504,000 KRW and delayed damages." If the ruling is finalized, Hong and Han will have to pay the government about 1.4 billion KRW, including delayed damages calculated at 5% per annum from February 2013, when the dancheong work was completed.

Hong, who was a holder of the National Intangible Cultural Property, was in charge of the restoration work of the Sungnyemun dancheong from August 2012 to February 2013. It was investigated that although Hong had experience applying synthetic materials to palace dancheong in the past, he had never used only traditional materials for the work.

At first, for about a month, he used traditional techniques employing natural pigments and traditional adhesives, but the colors did not develop well, and as the weather got colder, the traditional adhesive, animal glue, coagulated. Then, Hong and Han breached the contract and used chemical pigment Jidang and chemical adhesive acrylic emulsion to shorten the construction period. It was found that they mainly worked during early morning hours to avoid supervision. The dancheong painted in this way eventually peeled off just three months after restoration.

In March 2017, the government filed a lawsuit against Hong and Han, demanding compensation of about 1.18 billion KRW necessary for the complete reapplication of the Sungnyemun dancheong. In court, Hong and Han argued that since chemical pigments were mixed, it could not be definitively concluded that the dancheong peeled off due to this, so liability for damages should not be established.

The court partially accepted their claims, stating based on experiments and appraisals by the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage that "it is insufficient to recognize that the cracks and peeling of the Sungnyemun dancheong were caused by the defendants' mixed use of materials." However, the court limited the compensation liability to 80% of 1.18188 billion KRW, citing reasons such as the government being aware that Hong had no experience applying dancheong using only traditional materials.

Separately from the civil lawsuit, Hong was criminally tried in May 2015 on charges of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison, with the sentence finalized. The Cultural Heritage Administration revoked his status as a holder of intangible cultural property in 2017.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.