Artifacts Neglected in University Museum Storage to Be Brought into the Spotlight

Cultural Heritage Administration 'Mijeong-ri Artifacts Preservation and Utilization' Briefing Session

The Cultural Heritage Administration and the University Museum Association will hold a briefing session on the "Preservation and Utilization Project for Unsorted Buried Cultural Properties" at 10 a.m. on the 14th at the Daejeon KW Convention Center in Seo-gu, Daejeon. This project supports the hiring of professionals to organize artifacts left unattended in storage after excavation by university museums and to register them as state-owned artifacts. From 2020 to last year, it induced the hiring of 747 personnel. It also achieved the organization of approximately 336,000 unsorted artifacts and the transfer of about 27,000 artifacts to state ownership.

The briefing session is designed to enhance the understanding of university museum staff conducting this year's project and to inform them about the systematic procedures for state ownership transfer. It will proceed in the order of on-site meetings, commendations for meritorious persons, administrative procedures for state ownership, and artifact transfer training.

The Cultural Heritage Administration plans to invest 16 billion KRW in national funds by 2025, when the project concludes, creating 910 jobs. Additionally, it will publish about 150 site reports and transfer approximately 60,000 artifacts to state ownership. An official stated, "We will help the public access previously unpublished and unsorted artifacts from university museums and transfer them to the state to enable systematic artifact management as well as diverse uses such as exhibitions and education."