RM's Quiet Donation Just Gave Korean Art History a New Catalog

On March 11, 2026, the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation published "IT'S ____ HERE: Korean Paintings Shining Abroad," a catalog documenting 24 traditional Korean paintings held in museums outside Korea according to the Foundation's official announcement. The publication was funded by a 100 million won donation from RM (김남준, Kim Namjoon) of BTS in 2022, the second of two equal contributions he made to the Foundation without any public announcement as confirmed by the Foundation. Three years after a quiet wire transfer, that donation became something you can hold in your hands.

On March 11, the Foundation published "IT'S ____ HERE: Korean Paintings Shining Abroad" (나라 밖 빛나는 한국 옛 그림), a richly illustrated catalog documenting 24 traditional Korean paintings currently held in museum collections outside Korea. The result is a bridge between centuries of Korean artistic tradition and audiences who might otherwise never encounter these works.

What RM Funded

RM had been supporting the Foundation before this catalog was even conceived. In September 2021, he donated 100 million won (about $68,000 USD) to support the Foundation's preservation and restoration work per the Foundation's donation records. He matched that amount the following year, bringing his total contribution to 200 million won. The 2022 donation went directly toward this publication.

The Foundation, which operates under the Korea Heritage Service, designed the catalog as an art book accessible to both academic researchers and general readers. Every piece is documented with high-resolution images and detailed scholarly commentary, making it equally useful for a journal citation or a museum afternoon.

The Art Inside

The 24 works span roughly 400 years of Korean painting, from the early 16th century through the 20th century. They cover the full traditional spectrum: landscapes (산수화), portraits, documentary paintings, bird-and-flower works. Formats include both folding screens and hanging scrolls, drawn from institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and other countries.

Two pieces anchor the catalog. "Welcoming Banquet of the Governor of Pyeongan," a 19th-century eight-panel screen held at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, depicts a ceremonial banquet hosted in 1826 to honor the top candidates who had passed the Joseon state examinations. It is a painting about prestige, ritual, and the weight of official ceremony.

On the other end of the tonal register sits "Snowscape with Figures" (1584) by Kim Si, housed at the Cleveland Museum of Art. According to the Cleveland Museum's documentation, the museum describes it as a rare surviving example from the early Joseon period (1392-1910). Kim Si, a member of the aristocracy who withdrew from public life after his father's political fall, used the painting's image of a solitary scholar in snow-covered mountains to express something deeper than landscape. The museum reads it as a mindscape.

The Bigger Picture

The scale of what sits in overseas collections is staggering. As of January 2026, the Foundation has catalogued 121,143 Korean cultural heritage items across 801 institutions in 29 countries, totaling 256,190 individual pieces per the Foundation's annual survey. That number rose by more than 8,000 pieces compared to the previous year's survey. Repatriation of many of these works is legally and diplomatically complicated. Documentation and accessibility are the practical next step, and that's exactly what this catalog addresses.

Kwak Chang-yong, secretary general of the Foundation, stated in a Foundation release: "These works transcend mere cultural relics; they are a cultural bridge between Korea and the world. Its publication is made even more notable by the generous support of RM, whose deep interest in and great respect for Korean culture adds greater meaning to the occasion."

RM's Art World Profile, in Context

The Foundation catalog is one layer of what has become a serious and sustained engagement with the art world from RM. This October, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art opens "RM x SFMOMA," a joint exhibition placing 200 works from RM's personal collection alongside pieces from SFMOMA's holdings as announced by SFMOMA. The show runs through February 7, 2027, and marks the first museum exhibition to feature artworks from RM's private collection.

His collecting focuses on modern and contemporary Korean masters, including Yun Hyong-keun, Park Rehyun, and Kim Yun Shin, alongside Western figures like Mark Rothko and Georgia O'Keeffe. For someone whose parallel career involves global arena tours with BTS under BigHit Music, the depth of his art world involvement is not a side hobby. It is a consistent, long-term practice.

The catalog ships to public libraries and major research institutions in Korea and abroad, distributed free of charge. You do not need to be a collector, an academic, or an ARMY member to access it. That was the point.