A museum to hold the massive art collection donated by the family of late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee will be built just east of Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul's Jongno district. 

Culture Minister Hwang Hee and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the project, as both pledged to foster the center as a world-class cultural hotspot. 

In April, Lee's family had announced the gift of some 23-thousand artworks from his personal collection. 

The center, which is to house all of the donated pieces, will be built on a nine-thousand-787-square-meter plot in Songhyeon-dong, near the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Seoul Museum of Craft Art and Insa-dong, home to many galleries.

After launching a preliminary feasibility study this month, the government will select the structure's designer in the latter half of 2022 via an international competition. The grand opening is eyed for 2027.