YG asked for 3 hours — National Museum of Korea's Blackpink fan event draws fire at audit

The National Museum of Korea is again drawing fire over a fan event it hosted for Blackpink's 10th debut anniversary that temporarily restricted public access to one of its galleries. At a national audit session Monday, lawmakers questioned why the museum blocked general visitors for an hour yet classified the event not as an external venue rental but as a "collaboration" — a distinction that carries different regulatory implications. Documents show that Blackpink's agency, YG Entertainment, had originally asked to use the special exhibition hall for three hours.

Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Kim Jae-won questioned National Museum of Korea Director Yoo Hong-june at the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee audit Monday, pressing him on how the Aug. 8 Blackpink fan event was organized and what standards governed the use of the museum's facilities. The museum restricted new visitors from entering Special Exhibition Hall 1 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. that Saturday.

The official request letter from YG, made public by Kim's office, listed the event's name as "Blackpink X National Museum of Korea Exhibition Tour Fan Event." In the letter, YG said it hoped to hold the 10th anniversary event "in collaboration with your institution" and asked for the museum's cooperation on "facility use and safety management." The requested time slot was noon to 3 p.m. on Aug. 8 — a total of 180 minutes — and the venue was Special Exhibition Hall 1. The letter listed the participants as Blackpink members and "40 guerrilla event winners," with the program including a re-listening of a members' audio guide, a tour of a Thai art exhibition, and a member-fan interaction segment.

Director Yoo said the event was a collaboration carried out under a memorandum of understanding the museum had signed with YG. The museum's position is that the event was an extension of its "National Museum of Korea × Blackpink" collaboration ongoing since February, aimed at promoting the special exhibition "Amazing Thailand: Masterpieces of Thai Art" through the profile of Lisa, the group's Thai-born member.

Kim drew a distinction between the February collaboration and the August fan event. He said the members' audio guide recordings, promotional imagery, and the pink lighting on the museum's exterior walls — which ran from late February through March 8 — could reasonably be seen as a cultural heritage promotion effort, but that the August event was a separate fan event that began with a phone call from YG in late July. Kim called on the museum to provide the basis on which it determined the August event qualified as a collaboration.

The classification matters because it determines which visitor-protection rules apply. In May 2022, the museum temporarily closed for a state dinner held during a South Korea-US summit, forcing 774 visitors with advance reservations for a special exhibition to cancel or reschedule. The incident triggered a controversy over venue-rental rule violations at that year's national audit, prompting the museum to revise its regulations. However, Kim's office said there are no clear separate standards governing advance public notice or visitor-impact assessments for events classified as collaborations.

The event was organized on a tight timeline. According to the schedule the museum provided to the press, YG requested the event on July 29, and Director Yoo gave final approval on Aug. 3 — five days before the event. The venue was confirmed as the lobby of Special Exhibition Hall 1 on Aug. 5, and YG's official written request was received the day before the event, on Aug. 7. A notice to general visitors was posted on the museum's website only that evening, around 7 p.m.

The notice was titled "Temporary adjustment of some exhibition spaces on the afternoon of Aug. 8." The text stated only that entry to some exhibition spaces might be adjusted due to "a museum event" — it did not mention Blackpink, the event's name, or the specific hours during which access would be restricted.

According to the museum, 65 visitors had advance reservations for the special exhibition as of the day before the event, and between 50 and 60 visitors were waiting on-site when the access restriction was lifted around 3 p.m. A painting workshop tied to the "Amazing Thailand" exhibition, led by artist Lee Da and scheduled for that afternoon, was also disrupted — the exhibition tour portion of the program was pushed back. Lee wrote on social media that she had planned to begin the exhibition tour at 2:30 p.m. but was blocked from entering, and extended her lecture portion until 3:10 p.m.

The museum said it adjusted the workshop schedule with the publisher's consent the day before the event, and offered visitors who could not enter tickets to another special exhibition, "Our Table." YG's written request had asked for three hours of facility use; the actual access restriction lasted one hour.

Two days after the event, on Aug. 10, a complaint was filed with the government's public petition portal asking that the approval process and the visitor restrictions be investigated. The complaint, initially assigned to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's audit office, was transferred to the National Museum of Korea. In its Aug. 28 response, the museum apologized, saying it "regrets that there were shortcomings, despite efforts to ensure the safety of the event and minimize inconvenience to visitors."

Kim urged the museum Monday to clarify what internal rules or criteria distinguish a venue rental from a collaboration, and who has the authority to make that determination. He also called for the introduction of a visitor-impact assessment process for collaboration events, and demanded that the museum submit data analyzing how much the Blackpink fan event contributed to promoting the Thai special exhibition.