[KS] Korean Museums

[Brother Anthony]

Keith Pratt raises an interesting question. There is a short piece in the pages of the Korean Museum of Contemporary Art  http://www.moca.go.kr/notice/n38/38-a.html     mentioning the conflicts between those in about 1915 who wanted an Art Gallery (miseul-gwan) and those who wanted a Museum (pangmul-gwan) in the case of the Government General Museum (that I mentioned previously in Gyeongbok-gung) saying that it was originally built and first used for exhibitions of modern art, but then appropriated for use as a museum. I wonder where that lady quoted by Keith (her full text is at http://www.intercom.museum/documents/4-7Sung.pdf  ) got the name "Hall Art Museum" or what Sino-Korean name she is translating, because it seems not to be a recognized name in English. It would certainly be interesting (but perhaps difficult now) to find out how objects were acquired for the GG Museum by the Japanese authorities. Given the famous case of what Gansong Jeon Hyeong-Pil was able to acquire, it seems that the Japanese authorities had to purchase things on the open market. The phrases quoted "Their findings were gathered up and taken to the Cho Sun Governor's office. Ironically, the Korean imperial family had to pay heavily to purchase these stolen artifacts. In this initial period, the museum's collection comprised over 12,230 pieces in total" seem to me to be incomprehensible since she is talking about the Japanese period. There is, I think, a possible confusion with the "Yi-wang-ga Museum" which was composed of objects owned by the Korean kings-emperors rescued from the palaces at the close / collapse of the dynasty

Brother Anthony
Sogang Univeristy