South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has accepted the resignation of Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) director Youn Bum-mo, first tendered on April 10. Youn was serving a second three-year term that was due to expire in 2025.
Although no official reason for Youn’s departure has been released, it is likely related to 16 allegations of illegal or improper actions, including mishandled acquisitions at auction, identified during a audit of the ministry carried out at the end of last year. A rightward shift in the political climate since Youn’s appointment in 2019 is also widely assumed to have played a role.
The MMCA is one of South Korea’s major state museums, with four locations in Seoul, Gwacheon, and Cheongju. He will be led by Park Jong-dal during the months-long process of nominating a successor. An MMCA spokesperson said Park has served as chief planning and general management officer since April 2021 and the new appointment will be handled entirely at the departmental level.
As reported in The Korean Herald, the 16 breaches identified by last year’s audit included several involving acquisitions at auction. Staff used the KakaoTalk messaging app rather than authorized channels to communicate during the auction, and the number of external experts consulted on procurement was reduced in 2021 from 50 to 11. The audit claimed that MMCA had raised the auction prices of seven works and exceeded the appraisal committee’s recommended prices by up to 50 million won (£30,000), although all seven bids were unsuccessful.
Other charges included transferring 32 million won (£18,000) of revenue from museum facilities like shops and restaurants to staff as bonuses rather than returning excess funds to government coffers, a reported Korea JoongAng Daily. Contracts, such as the lighting for Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s collection exhibit, were awarded privately rather than through legally required open bidding. Yuan did not report any hacking of the museum’s official YouTube channel in August 2022, or deal with complaints of abuse of power among staff, the audit said.
Youn’s initial nomination under Democratic President Moon Jae-in’s administration also sparked controversy. The three finalists included former director of the Seoul Museum of Art Kim Hong-hee and Lee Yongwoo, former director of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation and several private museums in China. Lee publicly alleged political patronage after the other candidates were allowed to retake a practical administrative skills test that only Lee passed the first time around.
Previously a prominent critic, curator, and professor of art history at Dongguk University, Youn specialized in Minjung social realism, 1980s anti-dictatorship protest art, and North American art. Korean aligned with liberal President Moon’s cultural guidelines. During her tenure at the MMCA, Youn advocated for dialogue with North Korean art institutions and curated collaborative exhibitions of Korean art with the Guggenheim in New York and the San Diego Museum of Art.
Youn was reappointed for a second three-year term in February 2022, just before the March 2022 presidential election narrowly won by conservative Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party.
