AnalysisPrestige or risk? Why Korean cities race to host branches of world's top museums

An aerial view of the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2009, one of the world's leading museums of modern and contemporary art / AFP-Yonhap

The name Centre Pompidou, the iconic Parisian arts complex, has surfaced with striking frequency in Korea’s art world over the past few years.

At the center of the buzz is the opening of the Centre Pompidou Hanwha, the French landmark’s first outpost in Korea. The four-story space — designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the same architect behind renovations at the Louvre — will occupy parts of the 63 Square skyscraper in Yeouido, Seoul.

With access to Europe’s largest collection of modern and contemporary art, the Seoul branch will debut in June with a selection of Cubist masterworks, headlined by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

Yet Seoul may not be the country’s only metropolis to claim the Pompidou name. In 2024, Busan Metropolitan City unveiled plans to establish its own branch in an effort to boost the port city’s global profile. The two parties aim to conclude final negotiations by March 31.

If realized, the presence of two Pompidou outposts in a single country would be without precedent — one backed by a corporate partnership, the other driven by the municipal government.

A digital rendering of the Centre Pompidou Hanwha in Yeouido, Seoul / Courtesy of Hanwha Foundation of Culture

Busan’s move appears to have emboldened others. In January, Seoul’s Dongjak District announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to pursue a satellite of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), calling it a “strategic decision to place world-class cultural assets at the heart of the city.”

Whether these ambitions ultimately materialize or not, a larger question lingers: Why are Korean municipalities racing to stamp their skylines with the names of the world’s top museums?

Experts note that the momentum is part of a global shift that has gathered pace since the late 1990s: an alignment between cities navigating economic and demographic change and legacy Western institutions seeking more resilient revenue streams.

For municipalities confronting population decline or industrial transition, culture has become an important economic strategy. For major museums in Europe and North America, their vast collections strain storage capacity while funding grows less predictable. International branches offer a possible solution by putting stored works back on display, generating licensing revenue tied to institutional brands and extending museums’ global footprints.

Seoul's Dongjak District Mayor Park Il-ha, right, and Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, pose after signing a memorandum of understanding at the London museum, Jan. 16. Courtesy of Dongjak-gu

“It’s a meeting of two needs,” Kim Soo-jin, an art historian and research professor at Sungkyunkwan University, told The Korea Times. “Many long-established Western museums face constraints in storage space, staffing and budgets to oversee their massive collections. Overseas satellites provide stable exhibition platforms and financial diversification. And for cities, attracting an institution with recognized cultural capital is a way to strengthen their identity and infrastructure.”

This model is as strategic as it is financial, noted Yang Ji-yeon, a professor of curatorial studies and art management at Dongduk Women’s University.

“Museums can generate substantial value by licensing their brand and collections,” she said. “At the same time, they extend their influence by exporting curatorial expertise and operational know-how.”

For the Centre Pompidou, the financial pressure is more immediate. It is undertaking a $500 million redevelopment of its Paris flagship, which will remain closed until 2030. Sending masterworks on rotation through its international satellites — including its branch in Spain’s Malaga and planned sites in Seoul, Brussels and southern Brazil — allows the French arts complex to generate revenue and maintain global visibility even during the closure.

In the eyes of host cities, the appeal is equally pragmatic. Importing an established cultural brand offers a possible shortcut to recognition that can draw tourists and stimulate the local economy. In places like Busan, cultural infrastructure is increasingly framed as an engine of renewal.

“Building a cultural brand from scratch takes time and carries risk,” Yang added. “From a municipality’s standpoint, a globally recognized name can quickly become a regional landmark.”

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain / Courtesy of Art Books

‘Bilbao effect’?

The belief that a cultural landmark can reverse urban decline traces to a defining moment in 1997: the opening of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain.

Widely credited with transforming a polluted industrial city into a global destination, the Frank Gehry-designed museum became shorthand for the regenerative power of art and architecture. The so-called “Bilbao effect” soon entered the urban policy lexicon, prompting cities worldwide to pursue their own marquee institutions in hopes of replicating the turnaround.

But headline-grabbing success stories can distort expectations.

“Looking at best-case examples like the Guggenheim Bilbao or the Louvre Abu Dhabi, there’s a tendency to assume, ‘Why can’t we achieve the same?’” Yang said. “In reality, far more projects have stalled or fallen through than have ever reached completion.”

Even the Centre Pompidou’s recent expansion efforts underscore that uncertainty. In 2021, the museum announced plans for a satellite in Jersey City, New Jersey. After months of political wrangling, however, the state legislature withdrew funding, effectively stalling the project before it was formally declared dead this month.

Visitors tour the Louvre's first international satellite, Louvre Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, Nov. 7, 2017. EPA-Yonhap

Kim Yeun-hee, a professor of museology at Kookmin University, cautioned that if Korean municipalities truly hope to follow the footsteps of Bilbao, they must first recognize the scale of preparation this ambition demands.

“It requires a comprehensive strategy developed with experts across architecture, museum studies, cultural policy and tourism,” she said.

The Guggenheim’s opening in the northern Spanish city was not an isolated architectural gamble, the professor stressed. It formed part of a sweeping regional redevelopment plan — an effort to revive a declining industrial quarter through culture-led regeneration and environmental restoration. Therefore, it coincided with new business initiatives, public design projects, tram and metro lines and the rehabilitation of a heavily polluted river.

And behind Bilbao’s transformation, she argued, stood four essential pillars: financial stability, institutional authority, regional co-prosperity and public accountability.

Pitfalls of Korea’s rush

Applying those criteria to Busan’s plan raises difficult questions.

On financing, can the satellite be sustained over the next decade without relying solely on municipal funds? And can long-term central government support be secured? The projected construction cost stands at nearly 110 billion won ($ 74.7 million), with annual operational expenses estimated at 12.6 billion won.

Institutional authority is another unresolved issue. The terms of the agreement have not been made public, with both sides citing confidentiality clauses.

“A museum is not a showroom,” Kim said. “It requires professional curators conducting research, planning exhibitions and building institutional identity. Who will hold that authority?”

A digital rendering of a proposed Busan branch of the Centre Pompidou, a project still subject to negotiations / Courtesy of Busan Metropolitan City

Local consensus is yet another weak point. Hundreds of artists and gallery owners in Busan have publicly voiced opposition, criticizing the city government for failing to ensure transparent consultation. “If that process is absent, then the question becomes: For whom is this museum?” she added.

In essence, experts argue that Busan announced its intent to host a branch before establishing a long-term operational road map. Timelines for MOUs, groundbreakings and openings have been publicized, but a clear institutional blueprint remains vague.

The slow pace of negotiations reflects those tensions. Busan City and the Centre Pompidou had originally set a Dec. 31, 2025, deadline to finalize a contract, but later pushed the date to March 31. The parties are now reported to be working through legal reviews and other details.

The same critique has been directed at Seoul’s Dongjak District. Unlike Busan, which at least has an existing cultural infrastructure like the Busan Museum of Art, Dongjak does not operate a single district-level public museum.

“The order has been reversed,” Kim said. “First, there should be a clear vision and mission explaining what this branch is for, what it means for the city. Only then should its establishment follow. Right now, it feels like, ‘Let’s bring it first and figure it out later.’”

A view of The Renaissance City, 1350-1600 gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London / Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum

Beyond one-way cultural consumption

Ultimately at stake is a broader question: How would such branches of the world’s leading museums interact with local cultural ecosystem?

“Korea is no longer merely a cultural importer,” said Kim Soo-jin. “Through the growth of the international art fair market, biennales and global exhibition networks, the country is increasingly exercising visible cultural influence.”

For this reason, the country should avoid positioning itself as a one-way consumer of foreign brands and collections. Instead, the priority should be to consolidate its own cultural identity and then determine how collaboration with global institutions might generate genuine synergy.

“Are local artists included in the conversation? Is there a co-curation structure? Are we nurturing our own professional curators alongside this process?” she asked. “Those are the real considerations.”

Yang echoed that concern.

“Simply importing works from the Pompidou collection and presenting them here like a blockbuster exhibition is not enough,” she said. “If it is to function as a new museum, it must engage with local culture, reinterpret it, fuse with it. It requires creative curatorial vision.”

Chung Joon-mo, an art critic and former curatorial director at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, goes one step further.

Rather than allocating substantial budgets to branding fees and royalties paid to international institutions, he suggested redirecting those resources toward building autonomous museums on their home turf that is capable of cultivating globally recognized identities of their own.

“Using the same budget to invest in acquiring works, supporting local artists, training curators and funding experimental exhibitions could generate a new accumulation of culture rooted in the region,” he said.

Focusing on specific themes or regional contexts, the critic added, could foster specialized, agile institutions that can uniquely contribute to the local arts ecosystem.

“Such an approach would represent not only economic sustainability but long-term cultural self-reliance.”