[Korean Art Odyssey] Korea's dual mission for overseas heritage: reclaim what it can, revitalize what it can't

DENVER, Colo./DRESDEN, Germany — For decades, many museums in Europe and the United States devoted themselves to filling their halls with the world’s most prized antiquities. These fervent acquisition campaigns meant a tide of works were brought in from nations that had been exploited by colonization and war. Today, those same institutions find themselves at a moment of reckoning. Questions of ethical stewardship and problematic provenance now press upon them, prompting growing international calls to return objects that were forcibly removed from their place of origin. Korea, too, bears its own scars of loss. Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule and the 1950-53 Korean War forced many cultural treasures to leave their homeland. What seems to distinguish Korea’s response, however, is its unusually centralized approach. The task of tracking, research and strategic planning for overseas artifacts is not scattered across separate entities but is instead entrusted to a single organization: the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation (OKCHF). Established in 2012, the year following the highWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times