By Kim Tae-jong
Senior officials from the National Folk Museum are under fire due to a party they hosted in a restored historical house inside a royal palace in downtown Seoul.
According to the museum, they hosted a boozy dinner to thank its sponsors last Thursday to celebrate the successful restoration of a historical house, “Ochondaek,” inside Gyeongbok Palace (Historical Site No. 117). Among those invited to the banquet were lawmakers’ aides, lawyers and reporters.
The 163-year-old house was donated by original owner Nam Byeong-hyuck from Youngdeok-gun, North Gyeongsang Province last year.
The museum completed the restoration of the house for an outdoor exhibition site inside the place last May.
In the palace, people are banned from bringing in food, let alone drinking alcohol.
The banquet was reportedly thrown at the request of Cheon Jin-gi, director of the museum.
Critics said that drinking alcohol inside the palace was inappropriate.
“Other international museums host a sponsor night event in a very official and formal manner,” Hwang Pyeong-woo, head of the Korea Cultural Heritage Policy Research Institute, said. “No one hosts such an event in a secret manner like they did. Strictly speaking, they privately used the historical site for their own sake.”
He also emphasized that the traditional house has a historical importance that should be protected.
With the criticism mounting over the controversial event, folk museum staff announced that they will consult experts in advance before they host such an event in the future.
“We believed it was a conventional event, considering similar events by museums in other countries,” the museum said in a press release.
“But since there are different opinions about such events, we will seek consultation with experts when we decide to host a similar event at a historical site.”