Lee Kun-hee Collection heads to Britain in final leg of overseas tour

The Lee Kun-hee Collection is heading to Britain for its next overseas showcase, following a successful run in the United States.

The National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art will hold a joint overseas touring exhibition, "Korea: 2000 Years of Creativity," at the British Museum in London from Oct. 1 through Jan. 31 next year.

The exhibition is based on "An Invitation from a Collector" (2022), a special show jointly organized by the two institutions to mark the 2021 donation of the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee's collection to the state by his family. It follows "Treasures of Korea: Collecting, Cherishing, and Sharing," held at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C., last November, and "Korean National Treasures: 2000 Years of Art," held at the Art Institute of Chicago in March — making the London show the third and final stop of the tour.

The exhibition will feature 164 works from 79 holdings at the National Museum of Korea, 15 works from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, and 6 from the British Museum's own collection. Among them are 27 pieces across 10 National Treasure designations — including the "Bisan-dong Bronze Age Artifacts from Daegu," making its exhibition debut — along with 23 pieces across 13 Treasure designations. "Magpie and Tiger," which appeared in KPop Demon Hunters, will also be shown for the first time.

The London show will also debut seven works not included in the US exhibitions: Park No-su's "Mountain Summit" (1960), Park Rae-hyun's "Woman" (1942), Nam June Paik's "Brahms" (1993), Shin Hak-chul's "Modern Korean History — Synthesis" (1982–83), Lee Jung-seop's "Hyeonhaetan" (1950) and "Bound People" (1950s), and Choi Jong-tae's "Thinking Woman" (1992).

A time tunnel tracing Korean history will run through a gallery facing the British Museum's Great Court.

Part 1, "Wealth and Power," examines the formation and development of political authority in ancient Korea through archaeological artifacts from the early Iron Age to the Unified Silla period and Buddhist art from the Three Kingdoms era. Highlights include a set of bronze bells from Deoksan, the Bisan-dong Bronze Age artifacts from Daegu — among them a socketed spear and a hooked spear — a cylindrical vessel stand decorated with clay figurines, and a bird-wing-shaped crown ornament.

Part 2, "Wisdom and Beauty," illuminates the technical mastery and aesthetic sensibility embedded in Goryeo Buddhist paintings, hand-copied sutras, celadon ceramics, and metalwork. Works on display include Volume 249 of the first woodblock-printed edition of the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, a mother-of-pearl inlaid sutra box with chrysanthemum and scroll patterns, a celadon bowl with inlaid cloud and crane designs, a celadon incense burner with a qilin finial, and a temple bell.

Part 3, "Learning and Pleasure," conveys the scholarly pursuits and self-cultivation of Joseon-era Confucian literati. Featured works include Jeong Seon's "Clearing After Rain Over Inwangsan," Kim Hong-do's "Painting of the Ode to Autumn Sounds," a buncheong flask with incised bird-and-tree motifs, and a white porcelain bottle with blue-and-white landscape decoration.

Part 4, "Individuality and Community," turns the spotlight on individuals and communities who lived through upheaval from the Korean Empire period to the present. Works include Park Soo-keun's "Woman Pounding Grain" (1957) from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's collection, Kim Whan-ki's "3-X-69#120" (1969), Lee Jung-seop's "Hyeonhaetan" (1950), and Jang Wook-jin's "Ferry Boat."

"Paradise" (1936) by Baek Nam-sun, a first-generation Korean female Western-style painter, alongside Park No-su's "Mountain Summit" (1960), Park Rae-hyun's "Woman" (1942), and Park Saeng-gwang's "Shamanism 3" (1980) trace the inheritance and transformation of Korean painting traditions.

Two works absent from the US exhibitions round out the section: Shin Hak-chul's minjung art canvas "Modern Korean History — Synthesis" (1982–1983), standing roughly 3.9 meters tall, and Nam June Paik's video sculpture "Brahms" (1993), together showcasing the breadth of Korean contemporary art.

Yu Hong-jun, director of the National Museum of Korea, said the London exhibition would "present a new story of Korea with a more substantial lineup that includes a greater number of national treasures and treasures" than the Washington and Chicago shows, which he described as having been a great success.

Yun Tae-uk, acting director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, said he hoped the tour would resonate with audiences in Britain and Europe as it had in Washington and Chicago, calling it "a meaningful exhibition that will convey the enduring strength of Korean culture and art."

The Lee Kun-hee Collection refers to the roughly 23,000 cultural heritage items and artworks that the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee had amassed and that his family donated to the state in 2021, a year after his death in 2020. Some 21,613 pieces of premodern art went to the National Museum of Korea and its affiliated regional museums, while 1,488 works of modern and contemporary art were donated to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. It stands as the largest single donation of cultural heritage and artworks to the state in Korean history.

The earlier Chicago stop, "Korean National Treasures: 2000 Years of Art," featured a total of 257 works across 140 holdings — including 13 masterpieces of Korean modern and contemporary art from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, along with 7 National Treasure designations and 15 Treasure designations from the National Museum of Korea.