Korea museum chief under fire over own calligraphy on display

The director of the National Museum of Korea in Seoul is under scrutiny after a calligraphy scroll from his own private collection was put on display under the wrong name. The museum has since removed the work from view. The episode has prompted criticism about a director lending his own objects to the museum he leads, ARTnews reported on 15 October 2026.

The director is You Hong-june. He lent the scroll to the museum from his private collection, where it was shown as the work of a Korean independence activist, Korea JoongAng Daily reported on 15 October 2026. That label was wrong. The work was misattributed, meaning it was presented as the work of the wrong maker.

Museum research later identified the calligraphy as the work of Park Choong-yang, a pro-Japanese collaborator, SE Daily reported on 15 October 2026. In plain terms, that describes a Korean figure who cooperated with Japan's colonial administration. The mix-up mattered because the label had honoured the writer as an independence activist, someone who resisted that rule.

The museum apologised in early September for failing to properly verify the work before it went on display, Korea JoongAng Daily reported. You also issued a public apology over the error in September. The removal of the scroll was then reported in mid-October.

The scrutiny is wider than one scroll. You has donated other items from his private collection to the museum and has exhibited further privately owned pieces there. That record is now central to the questions being asked. For a national museum, the issue is provenance, the documented chain of ownership, and who vouches for it.

What makes this stand out for visitors is simple. A museum label asks for trust. When the name on the wall is wrong, that trust is shaken. When the object belongs to the director, the questions get harder to brush aside.