Leeum Museum to restore Korean artifacts from overseas institutions

The Samsung Foundation of Culture will collaborate with overseas cultural institutions to restore works of Korean cultural heritage, bringing the works to the Leeum Museum of Art for the restoration process, the foundation announced Wednesday.

“Banquet for the Governor of Pyeong-an,” owned by the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, is currently under restoration and is the first work to benefit from the collaboration. The folding screen painting from the 19th century depicts a banquet held by the governor of Pyeongan Province for those who passed the province's special civil service exam.

The collaboration with overseas cultural institutions to protect Korean cultural heritage is part of a memorandum of understanding signed between the Samsung Foundation of Culture and the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation in September. The painting was selected by a committee of cultural experts formed by the heritage foundation.

Upon the completion of the restoration at the Leeum Museum of Art, the painting will return to the Peabody Essex Museum by March 2025, becoming an important artwork in the museum’s Korean gallery that will open in May of the same year.

The 19th century painting is the first Korean cultural heritage piece from overseas to be restored by a private museum in South Korea, according to the Samsung Foundation of Culture.

“We will continue preserving Korean heritage with our own techniques and know-how to contribute to spreading the excellence of Korean cultural works,” said the Samsung Foundation of Culture CEO Lyu Moon-hyung.