Ministry briefed local governments on art business registration system just days before launch, lawmaker says

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in effect left preparations for a new art business registration system unattended, briefing local governments on the regime only three days before it takes effect Sunday, according to a lawmaker.

Kim Jae-won, a Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker on the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, said Wednesday that the ministry held regional information sessions for businesses on July 9 in Seoul, July 10 in Busan and July 15 in Gwangju. However, the ministry confirmed it would hold just a single online session for the local government civil servants responsible for receiving and processing registrations — and only on Thursday, three days before the Sunday launch.

The art business registration system, introduced under Article 18 of the Fine Arts Promotion Act, requires anyone seeking to operate a gallery, art auction house, art advisory, art rental and sales, art appraisal or art exhibition business to register with the head of the relevant local government. Local governments are therefore the system's primary enforcement bodies, Kim's office noted.

In a written response to questions from Kim's office, the ministry said only that it planned to hold an online briefing session for local government civil servants on Thursday.

The Fine Arts Promotion Act was enacted in July 2023 and takes effect Sunday after a three-year grace period. Yet information sessions for businesses were held just three times, all within the final month before the launch, and local governments — which will actually receive the registrations — have been offered only a single session. Critics say the ministry's outreach has been woefully inadequate.

The ministry said it would set a one-year guidance period following the launch to "minimize confusion on the ground and help the system take root successfully," but that too has drawn criticism as insufficient.

"A guidance period is simply a measure that defers administrative penalties and fines for businesses that fail to register — it cannot offset the ministry's lack of preparation in neglecting to train the local government civil servants who will actually handle registrations," Kim said. "The ministry, which is responsible for designing and overseeing the system's implementation, is offloading its own shortcomings onto the period after the guidance period ends."

Kim added, "It is the ministry's responsibility both to design the system and to ensure it is ready to run. Rather than hiding behind the guidance period to avoid accountability, the ministry must conduct a full review of each local government's state of readiness right now and take immediate corrective action."