South Korea's National Museum Director Bows in Apology Over Mislabelled Colonial-Era Calligraphy

Director Yoo Hong-jun of the National Museum of Korea bowed deeply before the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee on 19 October 2026 in a formal public apology. The controversy centred on a calligraphy piece displayed in the museum's special exhibition titled Our Dining Table, labelled as the work of independence activist Park Won-geun. Investigators confirmed the piece was actually written by Park Jung-yang, a figure regarded as a pro-Japanese collaborator during Japan's colonial rule of Korea, a deeply sensitive historical charge. The scandal deepened when it emerged that the calligraphy came from Yoo's own personal collection, and that 865 artefacts from his collection had been incorporated into museum exhibitions. Yoo had signed a donation agreement with Buyeo County in 2016 for artefacts valued at approximately 2.7 billion won, around USD 1.9 million. During the parliamentary audit Yoo said his grave negligence caused the museum's trust and value to collapse, describing his failure to disclose the personal-collection origins of the pieces as a critical error. His visible trembling hands and steep bow became symbols of the institutional crisis.