Jeon Hyeong-pil (; July 29, 1906 – January 26, 1962) was a Korean art collector. He is also known by his

art name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin Chinese), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by artists, poets and writers in the Sinosp ...

Gansong. He is famous for his great achievement to collect 12 national treasures, 10 treasures and 4 cultural assets designated by Seoul metropolitan government. He strove to bring back Korean cultural assets and heritage from Japan, where a great deal of Korean antiquities were taken during the Japanese colonial period. The first private art museum was built in 1938 named Bohwagak () and later took care of most of valuable Korean antiquities during

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. After his death in 1962, the name Bohwagak was changed into

Gansong Art Museum 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 va ...

which only opens twice in a year since 1971.

Lifetime

He was born into a wealthy family in 1906. In 1926, he graduated from

Whimoon High School Whimoon High School () is a private high school at Daechi-dong, Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious high schools in South Korea. It is known for having extremely competitive admissions and strong college admission o ...

and then went to Law department of

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

. His father was able to possess a great fortune by expanding his shops along Jongno street, current central area of Seoul. In 1932, he overtook his work to collect Korean antiquities at own expense to protect Korean art and culture. His top priority was to preserve Korean artifacts during Japanese rule. It is said that an independent activist

Go Hui-dong Go Hui-dong (; 1886–1965), also known by the pen name Chun-gok, born in Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompa ...

and O se-chang influenced Jeon's philosophy and philanthropic passion for Korean arts. For achieving his own ambition, he established an art institute, Bukdanjang(북단장, 北壇莊) to research the value of priceless treasures and antiquities and built Bohwagak building, the first private art museum of Korea in the existing institute at his age of 32(1938). In 1940, he was seated as a principal of Boseong high school currently in Songpa district of Seoul and later organized the group Dongin, the first Korean association on art history. Art history association of Korea has been rooted in this organization. In 1962, he was posthumously honored to the cultural medals by South Korean government. Bohwagak was later transformed to The institute of Korean ethnic art to study and research collections of Mr. Jeon in 1966, which later became reopened under the name of Kansong Art Museum since 1971.

Gansong Art Museum

The museum holds the largest numbers of

National Treasures of South Korea National Treasure () is a national-level designation within the heritage preservation system of South Korea for tangible objects of significant artistic, cultural and historical value. Examples of objects include art, artifacts, sites, or buildi ...

. It notably holds an original 1446 copy of the text ''

Hunminjeongeum () is a 15th-century manuscript that introduced the Korean script Hangul. The name of the manuscript was also the original name of the script. King Sejong the Great commissioned the royal research institute Hall of Worthies to write the '' ...

'', which proposes what is now the Korean alphabet

Hangul The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. In North Korea, the alphabet is known as (), and in South Korea, it is known as (). The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs ...

. This copy is National Treasure No. 70. The museum only opens in May and October.

Hunminjeongeum

In 1940, the genuine copy of Hunminjeongeum was found in Andong City, which had been the heirloom of House of Kim. It was said that King Sejong bestowed the copy with the House to praise the defeat of the conquest of

Jurchen people Jurchen (, ; , ) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian people, East Asian Tungusic languages, Tungusic-speaking people. They lived in northeastern China, also known as Manchuria, before the 18th century. The Jurchens wer ...

in northern part of Korean peninsula. After hearing the news that the document was found, Jeon paid 10,000 won as worth as ten enormous residences in major cities at the time. However, he feared the fact that Japanese authorities were eager to suppress the education of Hangul during the late 1930s given that ordinary Koreans had not been able to use Korean names at this time. Therefore, Jeon made Hunminjeongeum public after the independence of South Korea.

Goryeo porcelain

Goryeo porcelain is said to be one of the most valuable cultural assets of Korea during the reign of

Goryeo Goryeo (; ) was a Korean state founded in 918, during a time of national division called the Later Three Kingdoms period, that unified and ruled the Korea, Korean Peninsula until the establishment of Joseon in 1392. Goryeo achieved what has b ...

since the 12th century. However, a great deal of porcelains were easy to be brought abroad without specific control on assets. In this regard, Jeon tried to find out some pieces which had been brought out of Korean peninsula. From his own work through the institute, a British lawyer got on the list. It was John Gatsby who possessed twenty two pieces of Goryeo porcelains at the moment. In fact, the deal was beyond reach since the price of the twenty two was more expensive than 400,000 won which Jeon suggested. In the meantime, John finally agreed to give twenty pieces back to the homeland after finding out Jeon's work to save Korean artistic figure and kept two pieces himself.

Korean War

During Korean war, North Korean authorities harshly tried to steal all the assets of Gansong museum. From this kind of threat, he could not leave Seoul even for a while. The tactic brought his colleagues and friends to protect cultural relics amid the conflicts since the control over the capital area had gone through some changes. Jeon also didn't leave Seoul amid bombard.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeon, Hyeong-pil 1906 births 1962 deaths Korean educators Korean scholars Whimoon High School alumni Waseda University alumni 20th-century Korean painters