South Korea's culture ministry will audit the former director of the National Museum of Korea, Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young told lawmakers during a parliamentary review on October 23, 2026. The investigation follows the resignation of You Hong-june, who stepped down on October 21 after a calligraphy scroll from his private collection was shown in the museum under a mistaken attribution.

The scroll, titled Ilban Sigugeun, appeared in the museum's special exhibition on Korean food culture, which opened on July 1, presented as the work of Park Won-geun, an independence activist who lived from 1912 to 1950. Further research established that the writing was instead by Park Jung-yang, a pro-Japanese collaborator from the colonial period who had at one time used the name Park Won-geun. The museum withdrew the piece in August and later confirmed the corrected attribution, after outside questions prompted a formal verification process.

The case deepened when it emerged that You had bought the scroll himself at an online auction in 2019 for 50,000 won and had assessed its authorship on his own expertise, without the independent verification normally applied to outside loans. He apologised repeatedly during the parliamentary audit and said he took full responsibility for the error.

Chae said the ministry's review would go beyond the question of whether You misused his authority. It will examine every step in how the disputed exhibit was managed and authenticated, with the aim of rebuilding confidence in the national museum after a controversy that put its verification standards under public scrutiny. The outcome is likely to shape how the museum handles loans from staff and private collectors in future exhibitions.