This photo shows an Italian Red Cross ship operating in South Korea in 1953 during the Korean War. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — A photo exhibition commemorating the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Italy will open in Seoul next week, featuring about 70 photos and video materials showing their bilateral ties, a national museum said Friday.
The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History said it will hold the special photo exhibition on the Korean-Italian relations on the third floor of the museum in central Seoul from Tuesday to March 31, together with the Italian Embassy, Yonhap News Agency, ANSA News Agency and the Italian Cultural Institute of Seoul.
The monthlong exhibition will be held under the theme of “All roads lead to history, Italy and Korea,” to look back on the 140 years of history since Korea (then Joseon Dynasty) and Italy signed a trade treaty in 1884.
Notably, photos and videos regarding the activities of the 68th Red Cross Hospital, an Italian medical unit dispatched to aid South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, will be released for the first time. About 60 medical officers and nurses first set foot on the Korean soil in 1951 and they treated approximately 230,000 people until 1955.
This image shows a poster for the Korean-Italian photo exhibition released by the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
The exhibition will also feature a photo of Carlo Rossetti, the second Italian consul to Korea who arrived here in 1902, riding a palanquin and other photos the consul took himself in Korea. Photos of an Italian Catholic priest who operated a free soup kitchen in Korea and a Catholic sister who cared for leprosy patients for half a century will also be on the display.
The online exhibition of the same photos (www.yna.co.kr/together140) will be open to the public from 10 a.m. on Monday.
(Yonhap)
