Artistic Heritage Division
- Research Activities
- 현재 위치Artistic Heritage Division
The Artistic Heritage Division actively engages in surveys and research on Korea’s artistic and documentary heritage with the aim of providing materials for preserving the country’s traditional culture and transmitting it to posterity. The division is committed to improving the accessibility and usability of information on cultural heritage for research and public viewing by converting legacy analog data into digital formats. The division also performs regular investigations on state-designated movable cultural heritage to better protect and manage it. Furthermore, the division actively engages in in-depth research on paintings and epigraphs in an effort to shed new light on artistic and documentary heritage and create new value for it. Through basic database-building and diverse research, the division plays a major role as a cultural heritage research center in charge of protecting and managing cultural heritage assets.
Artistic Heritage Research
Artistic heritage research is currently aimed at the establishment of relevant concepts and building a basic database for research on Korea's artistic heritage. The division focuses on the creation of high-definition digital image data on paintings, particularly portraits and Buddhist hanging paintings, the value of which have been recognized worldwide. The division actively records the state of heritage paintings using digital images with a resolution of more than 100 megapixels and conduct in-depth research based on the resulting data. Findings from the research serve as basic materials for historical verification and policymaking toward the preservation of cultural heritage. The division is committed to creating new value within the country’s traditional artistic heritage by providing the general public with images reproduced in multimedia formats on online platforms. Since 2023, efforts have been made to promote Korean art internationally and to enhance research by establishing Korean art information aligned with international standards and providing it to overseas databases.
Art Documentary Heritage Research
The main purpose of our research on Korea’s art documentary heritage is to compile academic information and data and provide related information to researchers in order to preserve and promote the utilization of classical books, documents, and epigraphs. At present, the division is actively conducting research for the accumulation and utilization of big data by compiling original and academic data on epigraphs, which have considerable value as cultural heritage, into a database. Serving as a center for academic information and data on Korean epigraphs, the division contributes to enhancing public and academic knowledge and the utilization of epigraphs by producing and collecting high-definition images, basic information, interpretations, measurement drawings, 3D data, and videos. In addition, the division operates onsite educational survey programs on epigraphs for young people. The division plans to conduct annual in-depth research on the characteristics of decorative design styles and writing featured on epigraphs in order to invigorate academic research into epigraphs.
Regular Surveys on State-Designated Movable Heritage
Regular surveys on state-designated movable heritage are mandated by the Cultural Heritage Protection Act for the purpose of preventive conservation and management of the statedesignated cultural heritage. Through these regular investigations, the Artistic Heritage Division assesses the state of cultural heritage and take steps to preserve and manage them more effectively based on the results of the investigations. The division has conducted onsite surveys of more than 2,500 movable cultural heritage items every five years. The survey results have been reflected in the relevant policies. The division also manages all the relevant data collected through these regular systematic investigations so that they can be used in cultural heritage research.