| Kansong Art Museum | |||||||||||
| Location: | 87-1 Seongbuk-ro, Seongbuk District, Seoul, South Korea | ||||||||||
| Founder: | Jeon Hyeongpil | ||||||||||
| Coordinates: | 37.5942°N 126.9966°W | ||||||||||
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The Kansong Art Museum is located in Seongbuk-dong, Seongbuk District, Seoul, South Korea.
The predecessor to the museum, Bohwagak, was founded by Jeon Hyeong-pil in 1938. It was the first privately-owned museum in Korea, and showcased various Korean historical and artistic materials that Jeon had gathered. His goal was to prevent Japanese removal of Korean cultural properties during the Japanese colonial period.[1] Numerous Korean cultural properties were taken to Japan, such as Goryeo porcelains, Silla-era Buddhist statues, and Joseon-era texts.[2]
The museum was designed by architect Park Gil-ryong .[3] Jeon died in 1962; his sons Jeon Seong-u and Jeon Yeong-u continued his work in museum and art curation. In 1966, the Kansong Art Museum and the Korean Folk Art Research Institute were founded by the pair. The former entity shows pieces to the public, and the latter performs academic research. The museum is named for the art name of Jeon Hyeong-pil .
, the museum housed twelve national treasures. This includes a copy of the Hunminjeongeum, which first described the Korean script Hangul (National Treasure No. 70). Other national treasures include Donggukjeongun Book 1, 2 (National Treasure No. 71), Geumdong gyemimyeong samjonbul (No. 72 National Treasure), and Hyewon pungsokdo.