5 must-see Korea-France treasures at National Palace Museum

An ongoing exhibition at the National Palace Museum of Korea called “Gifts and Records: 140 Years of Korea-France Friendship" offers visitors a rare glimpse into 140 years of Korea-France ties through a handful of carefully selected diplomatic gifts.

The exhibition features a variety of items exchanged between leaders of both countries for more than a century. Among the numerous items on display, five objects stand out as visual symbols of Korea-France relations and its ups and downs.

A pottery bottle is on display in the exhibition “Gifts and Records: 140 Years of Korea-France Friendship” at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

Wine bottle

One of the most disarming objects in the show is a plump brown pottery bottle once used to serve alcohol. The earthenware vessel, now housed at France’s Sevres National Ceramics Museum, is linked to a shipwreck off the shore of today’s Shinan County, South Jeolla Province, in 1851, indicating face-to-face exchanges decades before the 1866 French invasion of Ganghwa Island and the 1886 Treaty of Friendship and Commerce.

According to historic records, a French whaling ship, the Narval, drifted to the Korean coast after being battered by rough seas while sailing from Le Havre toward the Yellow Sea. Twenty-nine sailors were brought ashore under the care of the local magistrate in Naju, who offered them food and supplies and kept them safe while options for repatriation were negotiated. Charles de Montigny, France’s consul in Shanghai, traveled to Joseon and escorted the crew to Macao.

On the eve of their departure, Korean officials and French sailors reportedly shared drinks, pouring Korean makgeolli (fermented rice alcohol) and French champagne into the same convivial circle. Montigny was believed to have received the bottle as a keepsake of that night, and he took it back to France, where it eventually entered the Sevres collection.

The Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between Korea and France is on display in the exhibition “Gifts and Records: 140 Years of Korea-France Friendship” at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

Original copy of Treaty of Friendship and Commerce

The exhibition then shifts from informal encounters to the formal birth of bilateral ties with the 1886 treaty and its ratification documents from 1887.

The document confirms that the two countries fully endorsed the 13-article treaty made the previous year, after protracted negotiations over sensitive issues such as religious freedom. Throughout the 19th century, repeated waves of persecution against Korean Catholics led to the execution of thousands of believers and several French missionaries, turning religious freedom into the most contentious and symbolically charged clause in the treaty.

Thus, France pushed to secure freedom of Catholic missionary work, which was ultimately encoded and later became a model for other Western nations’ treaties with the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty.

The diplomatic relationship would later be interrupted for decades under Japanese colonial rule, but was revived after Korea’s liberation and strengthened through France’s participation in the 1950-53 Korean War and the two countries’ subsequent alignment on democracy and shared values.

A painted white porcelain "Salamina" vase, a French state gift to King Gojong (1852-1919), is on display in the exhibition “Gifts and Records: 140 Years of Korea-France Friendship” at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

White porcelain vase

A towering white porcelain vase known as “Salamina” was sent by French President Marie Francois Sadi Carnot to King Gojong (1852-1919). Crafted in 1878 and presented a decade later, it is considered the first official gift from a Western head of state to Joseon.

Stylistically, the vase would have looked radically foreign in a court accustomed to the austere lines and restrained palettes of Korean ceramics of the time. The inside of the vase bears marks indicating its date and place of production, echoing the industrial prowess and artistic sophistication of France.

The craft was part of a trio of French porcelain pieces sent to the Korean court. The other matching pair of large blue Clodion vases was taken to Tokyo when Crown Prince Yeongchin’s Akasaka residence was completed around 1930 under colonial rule.

The pair now remains at Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka in Tokyo.

A pair of decorative artificial trees made with precious materials from late 19th century Joseon Dynasty is on display in the exhibition “Gifts and Records: 140 Years of Korea-France Friendship” at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Jeweled artificial trees

A pair of Joseon’s dazzling artificial trees, or "banhwa," was Gojong's return gift to France in July 1887. The originals, lavish arrangements of pines and cypresses in flowerpots, are stored at the Musee Guimet in Paris, deemed too fragile to travel.

Instead, the National Palace Museum commissioned master jade artisan Kim Young-hee, a holder of National Intangible Cultural Heritage, to create four pieces.

The jeweled trees, lavishly adorned with multicolored gemstones and metal to depict peonies, pines and orchids symbolizing prosperity and peaceful reign, thus embody how the Joseon royal court translated its hopes for wealth and stability into tangible diplomatic offerings, and presented visually opulent tokens of goodwill.

A satellite image of Haein Temple's Janggyeong Panjeon (Tripitaka Koreana repository) is on display in the exhibition “Gifts and Records: 140 Years of Korea-France Friendship” at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Satellite image of Haein Temple

The satellite image of Haein Temple in Hapcheon County, South Gyeongsang Province, produced by France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) in 2014, pays homage to a contemporary French diplomat who loved the Buddhist temple, commemorating his contributions to bilateral ties.

Roger Chambard, the first French ambassador to Korea, arrived in 1959 and developed a deep affection for the temple and Korean culture in general. It is said that he had asked his family to cremate his body after his death and have his ashes scattered around the temple — a wish that was honored in 1982.

The image was presented to the Park Geun-hye administration in 2015 as a state gift.

The exhibition runs through Aug. 2.