With restructuring, a debate rages over Samsung’s precious art collection

Posted on : 2016-04-28 16:24 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Lee Jae-yong, heir to the Samsung throne, has no professional training, and possibly not much interest, in collecting contemporary art
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong (right) looks at an exhibit at the Leeum Museum in Seoul with Telmex Chairman Carlos Slim
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong (right) looks at an exhibit at the Leeum Museum in Seoul with Telmex Chairman Carlos Slim

We are groping in an impenetrable fog. No one knows the future of the art collection of the owners of the Samsung Group, which is replete with priceless Korean artifacts and masterpieces by Western and Korean artists.

With the winds of restructuring blowing at the Samsung Group, a fierce debate rages over the destiny of its art collection, regarded as the finest in South Korea.

At the center of attention is Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who has taken over the reins of power at the Samsung Group. With Lee taking the lead in the recent push for restructuring in the group, there is much speculation about how he plans to manage the art collection and the museums to which ailing Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee and late Samsung Group chairman Lee Byung-chul - his father and grandfather - were so devoted.

The restructuring campaign landed two devastating blows in the past few months to the Plateau gallery on Taepyeongno Street in Seoul, one of Samsung’s best-known art museums. In January, the Samsung Life Insurance building, which houses Plateau, was abruptly sold to the Booyoung Group, a conglomerate active in real estate, for around 500 billion won (US$435.49 million). And then in mid-March, the decision was made to shut Plateau down entirely.

Plateau, which opened in 1999 under the name the Rodin Gallery, was originally intended to be a venue to showcase “The Gates of Hell” and “The Burghers of Calais,” two pieces by French sculptor Auguste Rodin that the Samsung Foundation of Culture bought in 1994 for an immense sum of around 10 billion won. But it eventually became one of the premier spaces in the contemporary Korean art scene and organized exhibitions by major artists such as Park Yi-so, Cho Min-suk, Yoko Ono and Takashi Murakami.

In 2007, the gallery was implicated in a probe into illicit funds that Samsung had used to purchase artwork and had to close its doors for three years, but in 2011 it reopened under the name Plateau.

News of the decision came by way of a unilateral notification. After the building was sold, there had been rumors that the gallery would be moved to Samsung‘s main office in Gangnam, but the abrupt decision to close it has sent a shockwave through the art world.

While staff at the Samsung Foundation of Culture and at the gallery itself had reviewed and proposed alternatives, such as moving to a new site, they were apparently unable to resist the push toward restructuring that has overtaken the entire group.

Trouble is also brewing for projects at Samsung’s other museums. The group recently shut down the Samsung Children’s Museum, which had played an important role since Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art opened in 2004. Samsung spun the museum off as an independent corporation, permanently ending its affiliation with the group.

Even at the Leeum, Samsung has reportedly decided to maintain the status quo, continuing the shows that are already installed without planning anything new.

In connection with this, the Samsung group has frozen its acquisition of new pieces in the domestic art market since the second half of last year, art dealers say.

“Lee Jae-yong has recently urged Hong Ra-hee [Lee’s mother and Leeum director] and her associates to make sure that they don‘t waste money because of their passion for new artwork,” said a source in the art world who is familiar with affairs at Samsung. “Lee Jae-yong seems to be much more of a businessman than a collector.”

Lee officially assumed the mantle at the Samsung Group in 2015, when he was named chairman of the board at the Samsung Foundation of Culture. But unlike his father and grandfather, who were visiting art galleries and antique shops from an early age, Lee has no professional training as an art collector.

On the recommendation of the two elder Lees, who told him that he should start with the humanities to learn how to deal with people, Lee majored in Asian History at Seoul National University. While he enjoys ancient maps and inscriptions, he reportedly has little interest in contemporary art.

There are some who think that the Leeum’s current focus on masterpieces of ancient artwork, including an exhibition on traditional Korean architecture and another called “Exquisite and Precious: The Splendor of Korean Art,” reflects Lee’s taste.

Lee is not on particularly good terms with the contemporary art world. Former Samsung lawyer Kim Yong-chul said that it was Lee who told him that “Happy Tears” by Roy Lichtenstein - the piece that sparked the allegations about slush fund spending on artwork in 2007-2008 - was hanging in the house of Lee Kun-hee. In addition, Hong Song-won, owner of Gallery Seomi, claimed that Lee Jae-yong had opposed the purchase of the piece because he thought it looked like a comic strip.

Lee has not once officially expressed his personal opinion about art or about plans for how the Leeum will be managed in the future, and by whom. From time to time, Lee is said to tour museums with his mother to hone his artistic sensibility.

In 2014, Lee and his mother appeared at the opening ceremony of the fall exhibition at the Gansong Art Museum. After browsing the pieces on display, he posed for a picture with Choi Wan-soo, the director of the museum.

By Noh Hyung-seok, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

 

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