July 8, 2021
Seoul. Photo: Joon Kyu Park/Wikipedia Commons.
South Korean minister of culture, sports, and tourism
Hwang Hee on July 7 announced that a new museum is being established to house
the art collection of late Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee. Lee’s heirs
donated the multibillion-dollar collection—which comprises 23,181 artworks and
cultural objects by artists including Picasso, Monet, and Giacometti, plus at
least twenty antiquities officially designated as National Treasures—to several
state institutions in April in order to offset a substantial inheritance tax.
The grounds of the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu
and the Songhyeon-dong area near the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary
Art, Korea, are the two potential sites. The Culture Ministry has been running
a separate task force and an expert committee on dealing with the 23,181
artworks donated by Lee’s family in April.
Culture Minister Hwang Hee speaks at a press briefing held Wednesday at the government complex in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul. (Yonhap)
The announcement of a new institution unifying the collection
under one roof contradicted earlier claims by the businessman’s heirs that the
collection would be dispersed across multiple museums. "There is a need to
build a new art hall to better manage the donated art collection and study
[it],” Hwang said at a press conference earlier today, as reported in the Korea
Herald. “The aim is to share the donator’s collection and his philosophy behind
collecting the artwork with the wider public.”
A National Donation Committee for the Lee Kun-hee
Collection has been established to facilitate the selection process. Hwang also
lifted the veil on plans for a traveling exhibition of works from Lee’s
collection, set to take place in venues around South Korea beginning in the
latter half of 2022. The show will travel internationally, with the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art said to be in
talks to host the exhibition. Additionally, a database of the donated works is
expected to be completed by 2023.
“White Ox” by Lee Jung-seop (MMCA)
The collection and its fate have been topics of great interest to the South Korean public. MMCA Seoul opened an exhibition of roughly 70 works from the collection on July 21, having moved the date up from August to satisfy demand. A concurrent show of donated works is to open the same day at the National Museum of Korea.
Artworks also donated to regional museums -- including the
Lee Jung Seop Art Gallery on Jeju Island, Park Soo Keun Museum in Gangwon
Province, Daegu Art Museum, Gwangju Museum of Art, Jeonnam Museum of Art in
Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, and the Seoul National University -- will remain
there, in accordance with the donor’s wishes, he added.
Prev | [NEWS] German Socialite Pleads Guilty to Theft in Fraudulent Sale of Kusama Sculpture |
---|---|
Next | [CURATION] Kerry James Marshall’s Vignette (Wishing Well) |
List |