Victor Emile Marie Joseph Collin de Plancy

Who was Victor Emile Marie Joseph Collin de Plancy?

Victor Émile Marie Joseph Collin de Plancy 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. Collin de Plancy served for nearly a decade starting in 1884 as French Minister to Korea. 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.