French art museum Musee d’Orsay has started to offer a Korean-language digital docent service, sponsored by Korean Air. 


Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho attended a ceremony, held at the third-largest museum in Paris on Monday, where Musee d’Orsay President Guy Cogeval, chief executive officers from Skyteam airlines and other major business figures gathered to mark the launch of the audio service.

“The ceremony to celebrate the introduction of the Korean audio guide at the Musee d’Orsay is particularly special to us, as this year marks the 40th anniversary of Korean Air’s service between Paris and Seoul,” Cho said.

Under a sponsorship deal signed in October last year, South Korea’s largest carrier will support the museum’s first Korean-language audio guide as well as a new set of printed materials, including guide maps and catalogs, in Korean. The airline will offer 500,000 euros ($570,000) until 2020 to sponsor the services.

The audio service is available on a total of 314 art pieces out of some 6,000 works that the museum currently holds, mainly collection of impressionist and postimpressionist masterpieces by painters such as Monet, Manet and Degas.

The museum provides audio guides in ten languages, including French, English, German and Italian, with Korean being the third Asian language to be added, after Japanese and Chinese. More than 3 million people visit the museum each year.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)