Hong Ra-hee steps down from Leeum director post
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Hong Ra-hee
Hong Ra-hee, wife of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, resigned as director of the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Monday.
The Samsung Foundation of Culture, which operates Leeum and the Ho-Am Art Museum, also headed by Hong, issued a statement that Hong will step down from both posts for personal reasons.
The museum did not give further details of Hong's sudden resignation. Hong's successor hasn't been named yet.
Insiders speculate that her sudden resignation is related to the arrest of Lee Jae-yong, son of Hong and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, in February. Hong's husband Lee Kun-hee is sick abed, and has been unconscious since 2014, and Lee Jae-yong has been acting as the de facto leader of the Samsung Group.
Lee Jae-yong was arrested on charges of bribery and other offenses in the Choi Soon-sil scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her close confidant.
It is said that Hong has often expressed her frustration over recent developments concerning her son's imprisonment on Feb. 17 and hinted at stepping down, Yonhap News reported.
Hong majored in applied art at the Seoul National University and has been considered one of the most influential figures in the Korean art scene since the opening of Leeum in 2004.
She resigned from her post as director in 2008 when the Samsung Group was suspected of purchasing artworks with a slush fund, but returned in 2011 when Lee Kun-hee returned to manage the conglomerate in 2010.