"Collect Over 20,000 Items from the Lee Kun-hee Collection"... Unfolding the Century's Transfer and Storage Operation

National Museum of Korea and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Busy with 'Welcoming VIPs'
Transport Work Underway at Leeum and Hoam Art Museums
Minimizing Artwork Damage with 'Vibration-Free Truck' Movement

National Museum of Korea to Open to Public in June
Modern Art Museum Exhibitions at Seoul Branch in August and Gwacheon Branch in September
Suggestions for Establishing a Museum Honoring the Spirit of Donation

Salvador Dal?'s 'Family of Centaurs (1940)'

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] When the Samsung family announced their intention to donate the so-called ‘Lee Kun-hee Collection,’ consisting of 11,023 cases (over 23,000 pieces), the recipient institutions?the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art?became busy with preparations. These public institutions are currently accelerating related procedures within the broad framework of transfer, storage, and exhibition. The art community is calling for the establishment of a large-scale museum to widely promote the donor’s philanthropic spirit and the significance of the collection. The government has begun reviewing measures to this end.

How Are the Transfer, Registration, and Storage Procedures Proceeding?

According to the art community on the 30th, the National Museum of Korea has been conducting the transportation of artworks left by the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee from the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art and Hoam Art Museum, both managed and operated by the Samsung Foundation of Culture, since last week. A National Museum of Korea official involved in the transfer said, "The level of art management at Leeum and Hoam is quite high."

All donated items are transported using ‘vibration-free trucks’ to prevent damage caused by vibrations. The interior of the trucks is compartmentalized with aluminum boxes. Since stacking above the second floor is not allowed, only a limited number of artworks can be transported at once. The transfer work will continue until next month. The National Museum of Korea is receiving about 21,600 pieces, which accounts for 94% of the total donation (over 23,000 pieces).

The artworks are stored at the National Museum of Korea’s storage facility in Ichon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. The storage facility is a space that protects artworks from various risks such as earthquakes, fires, condensation, humidity, and insects. Last year, the National Museum of Korea carried out a mid-level expansion of the storage facility, allowing artworks to be stacked up to two floors. Thanks to this, there is ample storage space. The storage consists of 22 rooms with a total area of 11,012 square meters, equivalent to about 1.5 football fields.

A cross-sectional view of the storage vault at the National Museum of Korea.

The Lee Kun-hee Collection is stored in a separate space within the storage facility as soon as it arrives. It stays in a kind of waiting room before officially being listed in the museum’s property inventory, undergoing processes such as fumigation, review, and registration. Fumigation is a process to prevent damage from insects and mold through sterilization and pest control. The review stage involves analyzing materials and having experts from various fields record the condition and value of the artworks. Registration is the procedure of assigning unique identification codes to the artworks and digitizing them. The National Museum of Korea is currently considering assigning a separate identification code for the Lee Kun-hee Collection, different from general donations. A National Museum of Korea official explained, "The entire Lee Kun-hee Collection may be officially listed in the property inventory next year or even later, due to the unprecedented scale of the donation and the complexity of the process."

Once a unique code is issued to an artwork, it is moved to a storage room classified by material. Ultimately, it will have its own dedicated room. Storage methods vary depending on the material. For example, metals must be stored at 20 degrees Celsius (±4 degrees) with humidity below 50%. Paintings and calligraphy are managed at 20 degrees Celsius (±4 degrees) with humidity between 50% and 60%.

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art completed the transfer of the Lee Kun-hee Collection last week. All 1,400 donated pieces are currently stored in the Gwacheon branch’s storage facility. The registration and storage procedures are almost the same as those of the National Museum of Korea. However, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s storage space is not ample. A museum official said, "The storage space has reached saturation," adding, "There is a possibility that the collection may be moved to storage facilities in other regions in the future."

Lee Kun-hee Collection to Be Publicly Exhibited in June... What Are the Key Works?

Kim Hong-do attributed Chulseongbudo (Treasure No. 1393).

The Lee Kun-hee Collection will be publicly exhibited for the first time in June by the National Museum of Korea in the form of a special exhibition. The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art will showcase the collection in August and September at its Seoul and Gwacheon branches, respectively, through a masterworks exhibition and a special exhibition. The list of works to be exhibited has not yet been finalized, but it is highly likely that famous works will be featured.

The June exhibition will focus mainly on national treasures and treasures. Works expected to be displayed include Jeong Seon’s ‘Inwangjesaekdo (National Treasure No. 216),’ a set of bronze bells from Deoksan (National Treasure No. 255), the Goryeo ‘Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva Painting (Treasure No. 2015),’ and Kim Hong-do’s ‘Chuseongbudo (Treasure No. 1393).’ Among these, ‘Inwangjesaekdo,’ painted in the 27th year of King Yeongjo’s reign during the Joseon Dynasty, is regarded as the masterpiece. Its appraised value is estimated between 30 billion and 100 billion Korean won.

The August exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, titled ‘Masterworks Exhibition,’ is also expected to primarily showcase masterpieces of modern art from Korea and abroad.

Representative Western paintings include Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lilies Pond (1919?1920),’ Salvador Dal?’s ‘Family of Centaurs (1940),’ and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s ‘Woman Reading (1890s).’ A series of Monet’s ‘Water Lilies Pond (1917?1919),’ similar in composition and size to the donated piece, is scheduled to be auctioned at Sotheby’s New York on the 12th of next month with an estimated price of 40 million USD (approximately 44.4 billion Korean won).

Works by Korean modern art masters such as Kim Whanki’s ‘Women and Jar (1950s),’ Park Soo-keun’s ‘Woman Pounding Grain (1954),’ and Lee Jung-seop’s ‘Bull (1950s),’ estimated to be worth hundreds of billions of Korean won, are also expected to be displayed. On the 28th, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee announced in a briefing, "The National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art plan to hold special touring exhibitions in collaboration with regional museums and art galleries, as well as overseas touring exhibitions."

Claude Monet's 'Water Lilies Pond (1919~1920)'.

Building a Museum to Honor the ‘Donor’s’ Philanthropic Spirit

The art community agrees that even if the Lee Kun-hee Collection is stored separately for the time being, it ultimately needs to be gathered in one place for storage and exhibition. They also emphasize the need to build a large museum bearing the donor’s name or commemorating his spirit.

Overseas, there are many cases where maintaining the collector’s name and honoring their passion and spirit have enhanced the museum’s reputation and elevated the country’s status as a cultural and artistic tourist destination.

The Kr?ller-M?ller Museum in the Netherlands is a representative example. The German-born collector couple Helene Kr?ller-M?ller, who had a strong attachment to Vincent van Gogh’s works, donated almost their entire collection, including many van Gogh pieces. In response, the Dutch government established a museum bearing their name in 1938. This museum now holds about 40% of van Gogh’s works and has become a world-renowned institution.

Exterior view of the Kr?ller-M?ller Museum in the Netherlands.

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Spain was established when German-Hungarian nobleman Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza sold over 700 masterpieces by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Edvard Munch, and van Gogh at a low price in 1993. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum has since become one of Madrid’s top three museums. Other notable museums that have maintained the collector’s name while expanding their influence include the Guggenheim and Frick Collection museums in New York, USA, and the Ohara Museum of Art in Japan.

Bora Kim, director of the Seongbuk-gu Art Museum, said, "Research and attention should be given to a collector with exceptional aesthetic insight and a unique passion for artworks, which is rare in Korea," adding, "I hope that even if the donated works are scattered now, they will eventually be gathered to honor the collector and the artworks." Jung Jun-mo, head of the Korea Art Authentication Research Center, advised, "Creating a National Museum of Modern Art with dedicated Lee Byung-chul and Lee Kun-hee wings is one option," and emphasized, "We need to deeply consider how to contextualize the works and assign value to them."

Meanwhile, regarding the establishment of a new museum, President Moon Jae-in instructed at an internal meeting on the 29th to "consider preparing a separate exhibition room or installing a special gallery." The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has also begun internal reviews, keeping various possibilities open, including storage facilities and museums.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.