Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Amid global Korean art boom, nat’l museum chief calls for bigger budget, new halls
You Hong-june, director of the National Museum of Korea, delivers a speech at a forum hosted by Kwanhun Club in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
By Park Han-sol
As Korean art continues its ambitious global itinerary this year, the National Museum of Korea (NMK) is repositioning itself to meet that rising demand while rethinking how it presents the nation’s cultural legacy.
A millennia-spanning trove of antiquities from the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s collection is traveling to the Art Institute of Chicago in March and the British Museum in September, following a well-received run at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C.
Relics from the ancient Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D. 935) will be spotlighted at Guimet Museum in Paris and the Shanghai Museum, while the Tokyo National Museum is pairing Buddhist masterpieces from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) with the refined court culture of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).
The surge of interest is tangible. “Since I took office as director of the NMK seven months ago, 10 overseas museum directors and two culture ministers have visited, all expressing a desire to collaborate with us,” NMK director You Hong-june said at a forum hosted by the Kwanhun Club in Seoul on Monday.
Installation view of "Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared" at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C., which ran from November 2025 to February 2026 / Courtesy of National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution
Buoyed by that momentum, Korea’s flagship institution is testing new initiatives to reaffirm its role as steward of the historical foundations that underpin today’s K-culture.
In a first, the museum will collaborate with K-pop girl group BLACKPINK on Feb. 27, placing the group’s global reach in dialogue with Korea’s artistic heritage. It has also signed a memorandum of understanding with entertainment powerhouse HYBE to develop a new line of MU:DS merchandise incorporating the intellectual property of the agency’s artists.
Looking ahead, NMK is preparing a blockbuster exhibition, “5,000 Years of Korean Art,” slated for a world tour in 2027. Envisioned as a panoramic survey of the nation’s artistic legacy, the exhibit recalls a landmark touring show mounted from 1979 to 1981 in the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
You stressed that keeping pace with growing international demand requires more than overseas exposure; it demands strengthening the museum from within, deepening its collection and modernizing its infrastructure.
“A museum’s authority and stature ultimately rely on its holdings,” the director said. “We need a substantially larger acquisition budget. Under the current framework, it has been difficult to bring about real change.”
The NMK, which houses roughly 440,000 objects, has an annual acquisition budget capped at 4 billion won ($2.78 million).
Visitors crowd the main hall of the National Museum of Korea in central Seoul, Dec. 11, 2025. Newsis
Over the years, You has personally donated artifacts to several institutions, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Chuncheon National Museum.
“I’ve bought works with my own money and given them to state-run institutions because their acquisition process is overly complex and the accounting rules too rigid,” he explained. “Even when important pieces come onto the market at reasonable prices, museums often can’t move quickly enough. I believe directors should be granted greater discretion, so that building a strong collection becomes part of their legacy.”
Acquisitions are only part of the challenge. A sharp rise in visitors has also strained NMK’s physical capacity. Its exhibition space was originally designed for 2 million visitors a year — less than one-third of last year’s total attendance.
Expanding amenities such as parking, dining and cafe facilities has therefore become urgent, along with plans to construct a second permanent exhibition hall.
“Organizationally, we also need to introduce a deputy director system in line with international practice, which we currently lack,” You said, noting that the museum is in close consultation with relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Economy and Finance.