Italian preservation expert hopeful for hanji joining Unesco list of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Maria Letizia Sebastiani, former head of Italy’s National Institute of Historic Heritage Preservation and Restoration (ICPAL), is certain Korea's campaign to add hanji to Unesco's list of intangible cultural heritage assets will see good results.

Maria Letizia Sebastiani, former head of Italy’s National Institute of Historic Heritage Preservation and Restoration (ICPAL), shows Korean reporters a photograph of one of the restored documents she did while working at the center during a group interview on Monday at the Korean Cultural Center in Italy, Rome. [YIM SEUNG-HYE]

ROME — Maria Letizia Sebastiani, former head of Italy’s National Institute of Historic Heritage Preservation and Restoration (ICPAL), is certain Korea's campaign to add hanji, traditional Korean paper, to Unesco's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity will see positive results.

Sebastiani was “well aware of hanji’s excellence," she told Korean reporters who were visiting Rome during a group interview on May 6.

While working as the director of the state-run institute that restores many of Italy’s important historical documents with the “uttermost strict standard and guidelines,” Sebastiani said that “there’s been no other paper than hanji that could fully satisfy the restoration experts with the outcome."

Since being introduced to hanji by the Korean government in 2014, ICPAL has been using only hanji for its archival document restoration projects. According to Sebastiani, some of the important historical documents restored with hanji include the Chartula of St. Francis of Assisi (1224), a 6th century Byzantine-era gospel, as well as Leonardo da Vinci's handwritten note "Codex on the Flight of the Bird.”

“The Korean government introduced us to a lot of different kinds of hanji, asking us to take a look if we can run some tests and see if we can use it in our conservation and restoration projects,” said Sebastiani. “Among them, we officially recognized two types of hanji [in 2016] as suitable materials for the conservation documentary heritage at the ICPAL.”

Eventually, all five types of hanji — three by Shin Hyun-se in Uiryeong and two by Choi Sung-il in Jeonju — were officially recognized by 2020.

Hanji is well qualified for conservation efforts due to being sustainable and durable, due to its robust and lengthy fibers. Before learning about hanji, Japanese paper known as washi dominated the market for decades.

Both Japanese washi paper and Chinese xuan paper were designated as intangible cultural heritage assets by Unesco in 2014 and 2009, respectively.

As a revered state-run center in conservation and restoration works involving documentary heritage, ICPAL has been encouraging other institutions to actively use hanji for their projects.

However, the supply of hanji has been a hurdle.

Thanks to the Korean Cultural Center in Italy, ICPAL has been able to receive the five types of hanji from Korea and shares them with other institutions, but it’s not enough.

Sebastiani sympathized with tradition and knowledge not being more actively passed down to younger artisans. She stressed that the government should continue to make efforts to change the environment and the way people perceive traditional craftwork.

As for Sebastiani, she only took a monthlong rest after retiring from ICPAL and went straight back to working with hanji again, devoting herself in conserving and restoring important documents at the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE).

“My ultimate goal as a person who loves culture and works with cultural heritage is to see the world connect through culture and see relationships strengthen through culture,” she said. “That is what I dream of and I think it is the dream of most people working in this field of culture.”

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]