Editor’s Note: This story was updated on October 21, 2026, with additional information.

The director of the National Museum of Korea , You Hong-june, has tendered his resignation after a misidentified calligraphic artwork belonging to him was put on display at his museum. The news was announced by the South Korean English language newspaper Korea Herald .

The work in question was presented in the show “The Korean Table: Food, Nature, and Life” (on view through October 25) as a piece by Park Won-geun (1912–50). Park was socialist activist from North Chungcheong who fought against Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945), a dark period in Korean history marked by forced assimilation, loss of individual rights, and exploitation.

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A month later, amid outside questions regarding the work’s attribution, the museum removed it from the exhibition; subsequent research confirmed that it was in fact by pro-Japanese bureaucrat Park Jung-yang, who had once used the name Park Won-geun.

You has exhibited and…