South Korea's Hyundai Card has opened the first MoMA Bookstore in Seoul, part of a cluster of cultural venues in Dosan Park funded entirely by credit card transaction revenues. Olivia Palamountain reports

Hyundai Card has launched the first MoMA bookstore in Seoul, stocking more than 1,100 copies of some 200 titles from the Museum of Modern Art's publishing catalogue alongside MoMA Design Store products.

The retail space sits in Seoul's Dosan Park area among other Hyundai Card-branded cultural venues including Cooking Library, Iron & Wood and Red11.

Hyundai Card's cluster of cultural venues in Dosan Park functions as a de facto arts district funded entirely by credit card transaction revenues. The partnership reflects South Korean corporate traditions where major conglomerates maintain museums, galleries and cultural foundations alongside commercial operations.
South Korean conglomerates, or chaebols, often establish museums, galleries, and cultural foundations, such as the Leeum Museum of Art by Samsung and the POSCO Art Museum, reflecting a strategy of "soft power" promotion and a blending of corporate innovation with cultural patronage. This practice aligns with the chaebol's overarching goal of enhancing national prestige and fostering a thriving cultural ecosystem, contributing to a unique intersection of art, commerce, and national branding.

Hyundai Card has sponsored more than 50 MoMA exhibitions since 2008, brought shows including Tim Burton (2012) and Young Architects Program (2014-2017) to Korea, and in 2024 launched a curatorial exchange programme sending MoMA staff to Korea whilst funding a Korean art specialist position at MoMA in New York.

A Hyundai Card spokesperson says: "Hyundai Card and MoMA have cultivated a nearly twenty year relationship, founded on trust, united by a shared mission to connect people from around the world to art."The company installed a digital art wall at its Seoul headquarters in March 2025 mirroring an identical installation at MoMA in New York, creating simultaneous exhibitions across continents. The bookstore extends this pattern of replicating MoMA programming in corporate spaces rather than traditional museum settings.

MoMA operates its own stores in New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong, making the Seoul location unusual as a franchised operation within a corporate rather than museum context. The arrangement generates revenue for MoMA's publishing division whilst expanding brand presence without the institution funding physical infrastructure.