MMCA secures record budget, while acquisition funds decline

MMCA Director Kim Sung-hee speaks at a press conference on 2026 plans for the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Tuesday in Seoul. (Yonhap)

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea secured its largest budget this year, in line with a record surge in exhibition visitors.

The state museum’s budget allocation has increased by nearly 23 percent this year from 2025's 69.1 billion won to 84.8 billion won ($47.8 million to $58.7 million). The increase is largely due to a new initiative to expand the museum’s exhibitions to regional museums, such as for Korean modern artist Lee Jung-seop.

“The government wants to expand regional access to culture, so we were encouraged to tour our significant exhibitions nationwide,” an official from the museum told The Korea Herald on Tuesday. “A total of 5 billion won was allocated for the project.”

The budget to secure works of art, however, fell from 4.7 billion won last year to 4 billion won this year, continuing a gradual downward trend over the years.

MMCA Director Kim Sung-hee (left) gives a presentation Tuesday at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea in Seoul. (Yonhap)

Visitors for paid exhibitions hit a new high last year, attracting 3.46 million people; the Ron Mueck exhibition alone saw more than 500,000 people, according to the museum.

Director Kim Sung-hee said she expects more exhibitions to attract high numbers this year.

“The exhibition expected to draw the biggest crowds this year is Suh Do-ho’s solo exhibition. Opening in late August, it is likely to benefit from an influx of global art people visiting Seoul for Frieze in early September, while the Damien Hirst exhibition is also expected to attract strong interest,” Kim told reporters.

Suh, as an internationally renowned installation artist, has explored themes of home, migration, memory and the relationship between the individual and collective through translucent fabric replicas of architectural spaces.

“The exhibition will mark the first kind of retrospective exhibition of the artist in Korea, as we believe his work has gained sufficient depth and layers, entering his 60s,” the director said.

Responding to skepticism over British artist Damien Hirst’s first large-scale exhibition in Korea, including concerns about his association with commercial spectacle and controversy, the director said a national museum has a responsibility to broaden access to global contemporary art domestically.

“Damien Hirst has consistently explored and dismantled how capital mobilizes desire and becomes institutionalized, and revisiting this dimension is part of what museums are meant to do,” Kim said. “This exhibition will play an important role in reexamining contemporary art history.”

Around 3 billion won from the museum's budget will be invested in the exhibition, with more than half of the budget expected to be recovered through admissions, benefiting the museum and government, according to the museum.

Since 2023, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art has charged admission for all exhibitions. For shows requiring particularly large-scale budgets, ticket prices have been set at 5,000 won instead of the standard 2,000 won.