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한걸음기자단 History

The Establishment of Gansong Art Museum

The Establishment of Gansong Art Museum

 

 

I would say that one of the most important historical events before Korea’s independence from Japan is the establishment of Bohwa-gak in 1938. Bohwa-gak is now known as Gangsong Art Museum, founded by a man named Jun Hyung Pil. Bohwa-gak is the first modern private art museum in Korea. Some might wonder why I think an establishment of a museum is so significant.

 

 

 

Before I introduce Jun and his private museum, I must talk about how much of Korea’s cultural properties were illegally taken abroad, and how extremely difficult it is to reclaim them.  

 

The Korean Peninsula (before the official partition into North and South in 1948) underwent Japanese annexation in the early 20th century and the Korean War in mid-20th century. Much of its cultural properties were illegally transferred abroad during this time period. According to Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, there are 67,000 Korean cultural assets in Japan and 42,000 in the United States, as of April, 2015. These account for 44 and 28 percent respectively of Korean cultural assets abroad. (Many pieces of cultural property were illegally taken to the United States during the Korean War, when thousands of United States soldiers fought alongside South Korea).

 

The Korean government and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) are working to retrieve Korea’s cultural properties. But the process is extremely difficult. We can see how hard it is to reclaim cultural properties when we remember how the South Korean government retained Uiggye, royal books on the protocols of rites and ceremonies of Josun Dynasty. The books were looted during the French invasion of Korea in 1866 (The French navy attacked Korea as a response to Korea’s execution of several French Catholic missionaries).

 

  

 

It is not only South Korea that faces difficulties in reclaiming its cultural assets. Greece has still not retrieved its Parthenon Marbles, which were taken to Britain in 1801. Greece was a colony of Turkey at the time, and Turkey had given Britain the approbation to take the marbles. Greece had been striving for the retrieval of the marbles since its independence from Turkey in 1832. But to this day, the marbles are displayed in the British Museum in London.

 

  

 

When I think of the difficulties in retrieving cultural properties that were taken abroad, I am very grateful to Jun Hyung Pil. Jun had inherited a stupendous fortune from his father. He collected and purchased cultural properties with this wealth in order to preclude them from being illegally transferred to Japan. In order to preserve these cultural assets, he founded a personal museum in 1938. That museum is the current Gansong Art Museum.

 

Gansong Art Museum is the place where you can feel pride in our cultural assets and the patriotism of the founder, Jun Hyung Pil.

 



본 글은 한걸음 기자단 개인의 의견으로 대한민국역사박물관의 편집 의도와 다를 수 있습니다