A piece of calligraphy displayed at the National Museum of Korea's special exhibition "Our Table" — introduced as the work of an independence patriot but later identified as that of Park Choong-yang, a pro-Japanese collaborator — turns out to have belonged to museum director Yoo Hong-june.
According to materials the museum provided to Rep. Jeong Yeon-wook of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, the museum responded to the lawmaker's inquiry about the owner of the work by saying it was "a piece in the collection of Director Yoo Hong-june." The documents were released on the 15th.
The museum said it selected the piece because of its historical value, explaining that it "carries the meaning that everyone must step forward when the country is in difficulty." It added that after deciding to use the phrase attributed to the monk Yeonggyu for the exhibition, it received the director's recommendation and borrowed the work through established procedures. The museum also said Yoo had purchased the piece to donate it to the Buyeo Cultural Center, and that he planned to donate it along with works by the calligrapher Kim Eung-hyun, known by his pen name Yeocho, to support the establishment of a Buyeo county art museum.
The National Museum of Korea had displayed the calligraphy "Ilbansigugeun" (一飯是國恩, "even a single bowl of rice is a grace of the nation") at the "Our Table" special exhibition, identifying it as the work of Park Won-geun (1912-1950), an independence patriot from Boeun in North Chungcheong Province. The phrase originated with the monk Yeonggyu, a leader of monk-soldiers during the Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592.
The museum later removed the piece after the patriot's family raised objections, and following a re-examination, said the calligraphy was in fact the work of Park Choong-yang, a pro-Japanese collaborator who had once used the name Park Won-geun.
Yoo apologized for the error on the 10th of last month, saying that failing to read the exact meaning of the artifact was "a lack of capability and a mistake" on the museum's part.
The museum said the work had been chosen after an internal review but that cross-verification by experts in each field, including handwriting and the subject's personal history, had been insufficient. It pledged to strengthen its pre-verification process by making expert consultations for future exhibition planning more systematic, and to expand its pool of experts on the modern and contemporary period to ensure thorough vetting of exhibition items so that the same thing does not happen again.