A domestic civic group has filed an appeal on a French court's ruling which dismissed demands that ancient Korean royal texts the French plundered during an 1866 invasion of Korea be returned.

Cultural Action made the announcement during a news conference at the National Palace Museum of Korea on Thursday.

In December last year, the French court rejected a suit filed by Cultural Action requesting that the Korean texts be returned to Korea.

The court said that regardless of the means of acquisition, the texts are a national asset legally owned by the French National Library (La Bibliothèque nationale de France) and therefore cannot be returned.

The civic group plans to raise public awareness on the matter by collecting a fund to cover the 160 million won in legal costs.