“The stone tiger on display donated by Yoo Hong-jun’s wife violated the regulations on posting relics on the homepage.”

According to data submitted by the National Museum of Korea to the office of Rep. Jeong Yeon-wook of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, on the 19th, Director Yoo's wife donated two pieces of her personal collection, 'Seokho Statue' and 'Seokho Small Statue', to the National Museum of Korea on April 30. Among these, one Seokho Statue was displayed on the stairs of the museum's open yard on June 2nd, a month later.

However, it was discovered that none of the two relics donated by Director Yoo's wife, including the 'Seokho Statue' that is currently on display, were posted on the website where donated relics are posted.

The enforcement rules of the Museum Act stipulate that ‘the name, quantity, size, and photos of donated items determined to be donated must be posted on the museum website,’ and the person responsible for posting them is the museum director, that is, Director Yu himself.

Director Yoo and his wife each donated two artifacts to the museum at the same time on April 30. Director Yoo posted his two donations on the 'eMuseum' website, but did not post his spouse's two donations.

In response to an inquiry from Rep. Chung's office asking why the spousal donation item was not posted on the homepage, the museum explained in a written submission, "Because it is a heavy relic, we were unable to move it to the photo room, so we were unable to take high-quality photos yet, and we rushed it because of the open yard exhibition schedule."

In response to this, Rep. Jeong said, "The exhibition was put together in a hurry in 33 days, but there was no time for more than five months to take a picture. Does it make sense that a museum representing Korea broke the law by not being able to take pictures?" He said, "Donated artifacts must be posted on the website, but not posting them is a clear violation of the law."

Meanwhile, the chairman of the 'Donation Deliberation Committee', which decided whether to donate the 'Seokho Statue' and 'Seokho Small Statue', which were in the collection of Director Yoo's wife, to the museum, is the museum director, but there is no 'exclusion' rule that excludes the chairperson from deliberation if the donation is made by the director's family, so in fact, it appears that the committee chaired by the director's wife received the donation.

Regarding this, Rep. Jeong said, "The spouse is a private stakeholder under the 'Public Officials' Conflict of Interest Prevention Act,'" and added, "The committee chaired by the husband must transparently disclose whether it reported and evaded being a private stakeholder while receiving donations from the museum director's wife."