The Cultural Heritage Administration (Administrator Choi Eung-chun) announced that starting from July 23, artworks created after 1946 will be excluded from the category of ‘General Movable Cultural Heritage,’ allowing free overseas transfer and export. This change means that works by renowned artists such as Park Soo-keun, Lee Jung-seop, and Kim Whan-ki, created after 1946, can now be sold overseas.
Previously, cultural assets that were over 50 years old and possessed artistic and academic value, rarity, clarity, uniqueness, and period significance were classified as ‘General Movable Cultural Heritage’ and were generally prohibited from being taken out of the country. Even for international cultural exchange purposes such as overseas exhibitions, the approval of the Administrator of the Cultural Heritage Administration was required for their transfer or export.
With the implementation of this revised decree, the production date criteria for General Movable Cultural Heritage have been changed from ‘over 50 years old’ to ‘created before 1945.’ Consequently, works created after 1946 can now be transferred or exported without restriction, opening the way for the export of numerous modern and contemporary artworks. This change is expected to help spread the excellent value of Korean cultural heritage worldwide.
Without this revision, artworks from the 1940s to the early 1970s would have been subject to regulation, potentially hindering the expansion of the Korean art scene.