On October 14, 2026, Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo announced at a press conference that the city would abandon its plans to establish a branch of the Centre Pompidou in Igidae. The city cited concerns over environmental damage, difficulties in safeguarding the public interest under the proposed contractual arrangements, substantial financial burdens, and insufficient integration with the local art ecosystem.
 
According to the initial feasibility and planning study, the project was estimated to require approximately KRW 110 billion in construction costs, with annual operating expenses of around KRW 12.5 billion. The city concluded that the project's anticipated public benefits and economic impact had not been sufficiently demonstrated to justify such financial commitments.
 
The decision carries implications beyond the cancellation of a single international museum project. Local governments across South Korea have increasingly viewed the attraction of prestigious international cultural institutions as a means of enhancing urban competitiveness and cultural standing. Yet access to the reputation and collections of an internationally renowned museum does not necessarily translate into the development of a city's own artistic and cultural infrastructure.
 
Of particular significance is the fact that Centre Pompidou Hanwha has already opened in Seoul. With an institution affiliated with the same French museum now operating in the capital, what distinctive cultural role could a Busan branch have fulfilled? And was that role sufficiently defined to justify the substantial investment of public funds?
 
Ultimately, the debate raises a fundamental question: What distinguishes importing the brand of a world-renowned museum from building a museum of genuinely international standing?

Seoul Already Has a Centre Pompidou — What Would Have Made Busan Different?
 
Opened in June 2026 at the 63 Building in Yeouido, Seoul, Centre Pompidou Hanwha was established through a partnership between France's Centre Pompidou and the Hanwha Foundation of Culture. Housed in a renovated existing building, the museum presents works from the Centre Pompidou's modern and contemporary art collection alongside its own curated exhibitions and contemporary art programs.
 
The proposed Busan branch, by contrast, was conceived as a publicly funded institution, with the municipal government responsible for constructing a new museum and supporting its long-term operation. Although both projects were based on partnerships with the same international museum, they differed in governance, funding structures, and public accountability.
 
 
 
Comparing Centre Pompidou Hanwha and the Proposed Busan Branch

The distinction between the two projects extends beyond their sources of funding. An international museum partnership undertaken by a private cultural foundation may be assessed primarily in terms of its cultural contribution and operational sustainability. A publicly funded museum, however, carries additional responsibilities concerning public access, the appropriate use of public resources, contributions to the local art ecosystem, and the accumulation of lasting cultural assets.
 
More importantly, the question is not whether two museums bearing the same name can coexist in Seoul and Busan, but what distinctive cultural value each institution can generate.
 
As an international port city, Busan has developed its own contemporary art infrastructure through the Busan Biennale, the Busan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan. These institutional and cultural foundations offered considerable potential for developing international research and exhibition programs distinct from those in Seoul.
 
The critical issue is the extent to which that potential was translated into concrete exhibition and research programs, as well as meaningful curatorial and institutional authority within the proposed partnership.
 
Beyond presenting works from the Centre Pompidou's collection, Busan needed a clearly articulated strategy defining what exhibitions it would co-curate, how local artists and curators would participate in international collaborations, and how the resulting knowledge and experience would become lasting cultural assets for the city.
 
Centre Pompidou Hanwha in Seoul is not exempt from these questions. Private funding does not automatically guarantee meaningful cultural outcomes. Its long-term value should likewise be assessed by the extent to which it contributes to research on Korean art and creates substantive opportunities for international artistic exchange, rather than simply presenting internationally renowned collections.
 
 
 
Internationalization Begins with Institutional Capacity, Not Brand Recognition
 
The establishment of branches of internationally renowned museums has been adopted by cities around the world as a strategy for strengthening cultural competitiveness. Such initiatives can offer clear benefits by providing local audiences with access to major international collections and exhibitions while creating opportunities to develop networks with cultural institutions abroad.
 
However, for these partnerships to produce sustainable cultural outcomes, they require institutional frameworks that extend beyond the prestige of an established museum brand.
 
Borrowing works from an overseas museum for temporary exhibitions and developing a local museum's independent research and curatorial capabilities are fundamentally different undertakings. The former provides opportunities to encounter internationally significant artworks; the latter establishes the foundations for continuously generating new cultural value.
 
The viability of the proposed Centre Pompidou branch in Busan should therefore have been assessed through more than projected visitor numbers or tourism revenue. Equally important were the degree of curatorial authority Busan would have secured, the knowledge and expertise it could have accumulated through joint research and exhibition production, and the extent to which those achievements would have remained within the local cultural ecosystem after the partnership ended.

What Kind of Museums Does Busan Need?
 
Busan already possesses an established public museum infrastructure through the Busan Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan. The city has also accumulated substantial experience in presenting international contemporary art and fostering artistic discourse through the Busan Biennale.
 
Against this backdrop, Busan's museum policy requires a long-term strategy that considers not only the attraction of international museum brands but also the respective roles of its existing institutions, the ways in which they can collaborate, and how they can collectively develop the city's distinctive cultural identity.
 
In particular, a coordinated framework connecting the research, exhibitions, and archives of the Busan Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, and the Busan Biennale would be valuable. If the international discourse and research generated through the biennale were integrated into the collecting, research, and educational programs of local museums, Busan could develop a more distinctive and sustainable presence in the international art world.
 
 
 
From Importing Museum Brands to Producing Cultural Value
 
Alongside its decision to cancel the project, the Busan municipal government announced plans to strengthen the exhibition, research, and collecting capabilities of its existing public museums, expand exchanges with leading international institutions, and develop a multipurpose cultural and exhibition facility in the North Port area with national government funding.
 
It would be premature to characterize the cancellation either as a failure of international museum development policy or as a success for local cultural policy. What matters is how the city implements its newly announced direction. Increased research budgets and professional staffing at existing public museums, expanded acquisitions and international co-curated exhibitions, and stronger support structures for local artists and curators must translate into concrete policies and measurable outcomes.
 
Partnerships with internationally renowned museums can be effective strategies for strengthening a city's cultural competitiveness. Their value, however, should be measured less by the prestige of the institutions involved or the scale of their exhibitions than by the lasting cultural assets and professional capabilities they help develop locally. Busan's approach to internationalization should likewise move beyond attracting prestigious museum brands toward generating new contributions to the international art world through independent research and curatorial practice.
 
Ultimately, the international standing of Korean museums should be measured not by the number of world-renowned institutions they attract, but by their capacity to generate new knowledge, critical discourse, and artistic value that contribute to the global art world. The cancellation of the Centre Pompidou Busan project leaves a fundamental question: How can Korea build museums capable of making such contributions?
 
 
 
References

1. Busan Metropolitan Government, “Pompidou and La Scala: A Shift in Direction Toward Strengthening Local Cultural Capacity,” October 14, 2026.
2. Yonhap News Agency, “Busan Drops Plans for Centre Pompidou Branch and La Scala Performances,” October 14, 2026.
3. Centre Pompidou Hanwha, Official Press Release Announcing the Museum's Opening, March 30, 2026.
4. Centre Pompidou Hanwha, Official Website and Museum Information, 2026.

Jay Jongho Kim graduated from the Department of Art Theory at Hongik University and earned his master's degree in Art Planning from the same university. From 1996 to 2006, he worked as a curator at Gallery Seomi, planning director at CAIS Gallery, head of the curatorial research team at Art Center Nabi, director at Gallery Hyundai, and curator at Gana New York.

From 2008 to 2017, he served as the executive director of Doosan Gallery Seoul & New York and Doosan Residency New York, introducing Korean contemporary artists to the local scene in New York. After returning to Korea in 2017, he worked as an art consultant, conducting art education, collection consulting, and various art projects.

In 2021, he founded A Project Company and is currently running the platforms K-ARTNOW.COM and K-ARTIST.COM, which aim to promote Korean contemporary art on the global stage.