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MMCA publishes catalog book on Lee Kun-hee collection

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Four newly published catalogs of the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s extensive art trove donated to the National Museum of Korea in April 2021 are seen in this file photo, Dec. 22. Courtesy of NMK

Four newly published catalogs of the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s extensive art trove donated to the National Museum of Korea in April 2021 are seen in this file photo, Dec. 22. Courtesy of NMK

MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection is seen in this file photo, Dec. 27. Courtesy of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA)

MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection is seen in this file photo, Dec. 27. Courtesy of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA)

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) said Wednesday it published a catalog book on the collection donated by late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee after two years of thorough research.

The book contains information on the 1,494 artworks donated by the late businessman's family in 2021, the MMCA said, marking the first time his donation is made public in its entirety.

Paintings, prints and drawings took up 83 percent of the collection, followed by sculpture, craftworks, photography and new media accounting for the rest. Of them, 87 percent were artworks from the 1950s to 1990s. The book covers works by 266 artists, including 59 foreign ones.

In 2021, Lee's family donated around 23,000 art pieces, including masterpieces by Korean and Western artists, such as Kim Whan-ki, Claude Monet and Salvador Dali, to the National Museum of Korea (NMK), MMCA and five public galleries around the country. Lee died in October 2020.

The artworks had been collected by the late entrepreneur who said he considered collecting and preserving cultural heritage a duty of the times in his speech to the opening ceremony of the Leeum Museum of Art, one of the top private museums in Korea, in 2004.

The 900-page book, which is not for sale, is available at national art museums in Seoul, Gwacheon and Cheongju, as well as public libraries around the country. It will also be made public online next month. (Yonhap)