Henderson’s Korean Artifacts Collection; Korean National Treasures

Part of Henderson Collection, historical Korean relics

Korean lover, Gregory Henderson, began his career in U.S. Embassy in Seoul when he was only 26 in 1948. He worked in Korea from 1948 to 1950 and came back again and worked from 1958 to 1963. He used a Korean name, Dae-Sun Han, during his stay in Korea.

He was fascinated with Asian culture and especially was into Korean china. While he was staying in Korea, he began collecting Korean artifacts or Korean officials at the time period offered relics to bribe him. After his stay, Henderson brought all his collections with him to his Boston house.

After his death, his wife, Maia Henderson, who worked as a sculptor during her stay in Korea donated 150 Korean relics of her husband’s collection to Harvard’s Arthur M. Sackler Museum in 1991.

Most of Henderson’s collection was examined to be best quality historical artifacts, and many of them were Korean national treasures. Of his collection, Boston reporters who visited his house after his death in 1988 called his house “Korean Museum”.

Current Korean Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Byung-Gug Choung, announced on Sunday that he is planning to loan this collection and open an exhibition in Korea. On his request, the Sackler Museum committee gave positive answer, so these relics might finally come back home after 50 years.

(아주경제 권지혜 기자)

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com