InterviewLee Kun-hee's Korean treasures to land at Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art this fall

Korean artist Do Ho Suh's "Public Figures" (1998-2023), installed on Freer Plaza of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C. / Courtesy of the artist, Lehmann Maupin and National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution

This November, a millennia-spanning trove of Korean antiquities and art — once housed in the private vaults of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, formerly Korea’s richest man — will cross the ocean for the first time. Its debut stage: the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) in Washington, D.C.

The massive 23,000-piece collection first came into the spotlight in 2021 when Lee’s family announced its donation to state-run museums to help settle the largest inheritance tax bill in Korean history.

Its sheer breadth was enough to grab headlines: Bronze Age ritual rattles and earthenware, 7th-century Buddhist statuary, gold-lettered scriptures from the 918-1392 Goryeo Dynasty, moon-white porcelain from the 1392-1910 Joseon-era court and 20th-century paintings by Korea’s modernist masters — not to mention a suite of Picassos and a Monet.

After three years of traveling museums across the nation, the collection is finally embarking on its international tour, with its first leg opening Nov. 8 in the U.S. capital.

“Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared” at the NMAA gathers some 200 objects, from the serene Buddhist sculptures of the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE – 668 CE) to evocative brushworks of the 20th century.

“This will be the largest Korean show we’ve ever done at our museum — and, for some time, the most important show of Korean art in the United States,” NMAA director Chase F. Robinson told The Korea Times in a recent exclusive interview in Seoul.

Chase F. Robinson, Dame Jillian Sackler director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art / Courtesy of National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution

The institution’s founding collection in 1923 included a modest selection of Korean artifacts. In the years since, it has staged smaller-scale exhibitions, which cast light on sacred dedication materials sealed within Buddhist sculptures and “chimi,” the ornate roof-ridge ornaments that once crowned the country’s most important buildings.

However, it was only in the past five years that the Smithsonian museum began to deepen its engagement with Korean partners, “to focus our attention on Korean art in a way that we had not before.”

From that renewed focus emerged “Korean Treasures,” a landmark exhibition shaped through close collaboration with the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art — two of the biggest beneficiaries of Lee’s historic bequest.

The 200 objects on view will be arranged thematically across 10 galleries — royal palaces, Buddhist temples, Confucian academies, scholars’ studios and modern white-cube spaces. Such a layout is designed as an approachable threshold into Korean culture for American audiences, many of whom may know the country only through its ubiquitous pop culture exports.

“It’s not just a collection of ‘greatest hits,’” Robinson noted. “It’s meant to be comprehensive, so it introduces the chronological breadth, the range of media and the diversity of contexts [in which this art once lived]: scholarly, religious and royal.”

A detailed view of the 19th-century six-panel folding screen "Chaekgado" (Scholar’s Accouterments in a Bookcase) that will be put on display at the National Museum of Asian Art's "Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared" / Courtesy of National Museum of Korea

Hwang Sun-woo, the museum’s inaugural curator of Korean art and culture and one of the driving forces behind the exhibition, offered a glimpse into its structure.

The opening gallery, for instance, delves into the history of collecting, anchored by a 19th-century “chaekgado” — a painted still life of books and scholarly accouterments, symbolizing what a learned household might aspire to possess. The genre, first popular in royal circles, gradually spread through the homes of elites and middle-class families as tides of expanded trade swept across the late Joseon Dynasty.

Hwang Sun-woo, the inaugural Korea Foundation curator of Korean art and culture at the National Museum of Asian Art / Courtesy of National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution

“And in that same space, we’re recreating a three-dimensional ‘chaekgado’ using real objects from the Lee Kun-hee collection,” the curator added.

Other galleries trace the many faces of Korea, from ruling officials captured in stately portraits and folding screens to aristocrats at leisure, pursuing Confucian ideals through literati brushwork and refined furnishings. One room turns to the elegant splendor of the Joseon court, while another immerses visitors in Buddhist art, exploring the religion’s arrival from China and its enduring roots in Korean spiritual life.

Both the director and the curator noted that the Lee Kun-hee collection strikes a chord with the Smithsonian museum’s own founding spirit.

“We saw some parallels between Lee and Charles Lang Freer [whose 9,500-piece trove laid the foundation of the NMAA in 1923],” Hwang said. “Both were successful businessmen. Both had a passion for collecting and a willingness to share it with the public.”

“And our museum, in many respects, is a collection of collections,” Robinson said, adding that each personal trove reflects a distinct philosophy. For a century, the institution has sought to interpret and share those individual visions in ways that resonate with a wider public.

That may be part of why the NMAA’s iteration of the traveling Lee Kun-hee exhibition will be the largest in scale. Unlike its later stops at the Art Institute of Chicago and the British Museum, the Smithsonian’s show will also be the only one to feature additional loans from Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art.

The Korean art gallery at the National Museum of Asian Art / Courtesy of National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution

Once “Korean Treasures” concludes its run, a longer-term task awaits Hwang. As the museum’s first curator of Korean art, she is laying the groundwork for a more expansive and diversified collection. At present, the nearly 800-piece Korean holdings lean heavily toward Goryeo-era celadons — a strength she hopes to balance over time with broader representation across mediums and time periods.

“We are currently in discussions with potential donors who’ve approached us with interest in giving works of Korean art,” she said. “Another area that I’d like to focus on is expanding our modern and contemporary art collection.”

That ambition dovetails with the Smithsonian institution’s broader commitment to growing its modern and contemporary programming. In 2023, the museum opened its first dedicated gallery for the field, inaugurating it with a solo exhibition by Korean multimedia artist Park Chan-kyong. The following year, sculptor Do Ho Suh’s “Public Figures” — an empty plinth lifted by a mass of anonymous miniature human figures — was installed on its Freer Plaza.

These ongoing efforts will likely culminate in the reinstallation of the museum’s permanent Korean gallery, slated for 2027.

A "charye" table (memorial ritual for ancestors) and "byeongpung" (folding screen) on display at the National Museum of Asian Art's 2024 Chuseok celebration / Courtesy of National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution

A visitor browses a variety of traditional Korean accessories at the National Museum of Asian Art's store during its 2024 Chuseok celebration. Courtesy of National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution

Reckoning with repatriation, new possibilities for collaboration

More U.S. and European museums are confronting difficult questions about where their artifacts came from — and whether they should stay. Repatriation, once a fringe concern, has become a defining measure of institutional responsibility.

The NMAA has not remained on the sidelines, most recently returning fragments of the ancient Zidanku silk manuscripts to China in May.

So how is the Smithsonian museum thinking about provenance research and the evolving demands of ethical stewardship?

“We’re really alert to the responsibilities we have to ensure that our collection was not just legally but ethically acquired,” Robinson said. “At the same time, we see provenance research and object history as an opportunity to broaden the public’s understanding of our collection. It’s not an obvious thing that Washington, D.C. would house an extraordinary collection of Korean art or Chinese art.”

Transparently telling the story of how objects moved — their original contexts, their transfer — deepens that understanding, he added.

A 19th-century "hwarot" (bridal robe) and the eight-panel folding screen, "Welcoming Banquet of the Governor of Pyeongan," both from the Peabody Essex Museum's collection, underwent a 16-month restoration by Korean conservators at the Leeum Museum of Art and Dankook University's Seok Juseon Memorial Museum from 2023 to 2024. Yonhap

Beyond physical repatriation, another form of cultural exchange is quietly gaining ground: collaborative stewardship, even as objects remain in their current, far-flung homes.

Korea has been pursuing such partnerships in recent years. Working with the Cleveland Museum of Art, it digitally reconstructed the “Seven Jeweled Mountain” landscape in Seoul, while the original folding screen remains in the U.S. It has also collaborated with the Peabody Essex Museum to restore historic Korean objects, including a bridal robe and an eight-panel folding screen.

These shared efforts reflect a shifting approach to cultural heritage — one that acknowledges complex histories while opening doors to new avenues of dialogue and care.

The 2024 exhibition, "Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain: An Immersive Experience," which unfolded simultaneously at the National Palace Museum of Korea and the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, digitally brought to life the vista captured in the late 19th-century folding screen, "Seven Jeweled Mountain." Newsis

Robinson noted that the NMAA is “very much open” to such collaborations.

“We’d be very keen to work with Korean institutions, for instance, in conservation,” he said. “Because we haven’t had many Korean objects outside of ceramics, conservation of Korean paintings is an area where we have much to learn and grow.”

Last year, the museum added two significant pieces to its holdings: a 17th-century Buddhist sculpture and “The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi,” a delicate eight-panel silk folding screen from the late Joseon Dynasty.

“These new acquisitions will need some treatment, and we are looking forward to working with experts in Korea to preserve these works and exchange ideas,” Hwang said.