Victor Collin de Plancy

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Victor Émile Marie Joseph Collin de Plancy (1853–1924) was a French diplomat, bibliophile and art collector.

He was a career French diplomat who served most of his working life in Korea and whose private collection of Far Eastern art and antiquities went on to form the core of the Korean collection at the Musée Guimet in Paris.^[1] Collin de Plancy served for nearly a decade starting in 1884 as French Minister to Korea.^[2] He was the first French Minister to Korea and published three volumes of "Joseon Seoji" while working as a French diplomat in Joseon. He was the first foreigner to recognize the historical value of Jikji and introduce it to the world through the Exposition Universelle of 1900. At the suggestion of Victor Collin de Plancy, Emperor Gojong of the Joseon Dynasty participated in the Exposition and made Joseon's history and culture known to the world. Victor Collin de Plancy set up an exhibition hall with hanok at the Paris International Exposition to display Korean traditional items and promote them to the world. At that time, one of the Korean books he displayed at the Korean Pavilion at the Paris International Exposition was Jikji, the oldest existing metal type printed book. In addition, he accurately recorded the value of Jikji in 'Joseon Seoji'.^[3] His accumulated books became part of the core of the Korean collection of the French Bibliothèque Nationale, and his accumulated artworks became part of the core of the Musée Guimet in Paris.