Important Korean Cultural Treasures Hidden Around the World

Ahn Hwi-joon

Professor Emeritus of Art History
Seoul National University;
Former Chairman of the Cultural Heritage Committee

It has been reported that 150 items from the collection of Gregory Henderson, a deceased American foreign service employee who acquired a large number of Korean art works while he was posted at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, will be exhibited in Korea.

The collection, comprised mainly of ceramic works, was donated to the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University upon Henderson's death. It was made known to the American public and the Western world through an exhibition held at the museum in 1993, under the title “First Under Heaven: The Henderson Collection of Korean Ceramics,” but has never been properly shown here. The home exhibition of Henderson's collection would increase the Korean public's understanding of their nation`s art works and cultural treasures and be a great help for researchers.

When I first heard the news, two things came to mind. When I was studying in the United States about 40 years ago, I once visited Henderson's home at his repeated invitations. Decorating his living room were pieces of Goryeo celadon, Joseon white porcelain and Silla earthenware, and hanging on the wall was a calligraphy work by Yi Wan-yong (prime minister at the end of the Joseon Dynasty).

How good it would be if my tangled feelings at the time could be wiped away by such an exhibition. The other thing that came to mind was how useful it would be if the exhibition served as a catalyst for more active moves to bring our cultural treasures scattered in various countries overseas for exhibition at home.

Once, when I was looking at some exquisite works of Goryeo celadon at the Art Institute of Chicago in the United States, I was saddened to think that those pieces might have been designated National Treasures if they were back in Korea. I had a similar experience at the Seattle Art Museum. While examining the range of Korean art works in the storehouse under the guidance of the head curator of Asian art, I was astonished at the superb quality of the Goryeo celadon wares in the collection.

Aside from world famous museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the British Museum, other comparatively lesser known museums have vigilantly collected a surprisingly large number of significant Korean artifacts. This is the situation not only found in the United States but also in Japan and some European nations.

The Korean collection at the Osaka Museum of Oriental Ceramics is one of the finest in the world, and another noteworthy example is the collection of Joseon Dynasty portraits kept at Tenri University in Nara Prefecture, where An Gyeon's masterpiece, a painting titled “Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land” (Mongyu dowon do), is also preserved.

If the Korean cultural treasures in other countries are successively brought home for exhibition, the potential benefits are numerous. By enabling people to see works of Korean art kept overseas without going overseas themselves, opportunities for cultural nostalgia will expand and understanding of traditional art will also deepen. For specialists in this field, it would provide great help in the research of Korean art and culture.

Important in this respect was last year`s “Masterpieces of Goryeo Buddhist Painting” exhibition at the National Museum of Korea, which brought together great works of Goryeo Dynasty Buddhist art scattered in museums around the world. Sixty-one paintings from as many as 44 museums and other institutions in Japan, Europe and the United States were brought home for public display for the first time in 700 years.

Thanks to the efforts of curators from the museum who made dozens of trips to Japan and other countries over two years to gather the works together, some of the greatest works of art left by our ancestors could be seen in one place. It is hoped that similar exhibitions of Korean art works preserved overseas will be held more often. 
Source: Korea Focus magazine