For more than seven decades, the family behind electronics giant Samsung amassed one of Asia’s largest private art collections. Now, with thousands of its priceless works in public hands following the death of the conglomerate’s chairman, the collection is being put to new use — as part of South Korea’s “ K-culture ” soft-power drive.

More than 200 of the 23,000 objects gifted to the country in 2021 by the late Lee Kun-hee’s estate — thought to be part of a deal to settle an inheritance tax bill of over 12 trillion won ($8.2 billion) — are going on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC this month.

Spanning 1,500 years, the items selected by the Smithsonian’s curators for “ Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared ” give visitors a glimpse

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