Like many art museums, the Honolulu Museum of Art has a huge cache of paintings and artifacts whose origins and background are little understood or yet to be determined.

But a recent visit by Korean cultural historians to study a collection of works the museum acquired 11 years ago resulted in a discovery that has rocked the international art community: two paintings from late 16th-century Korea, an era whose culture was destroyed by Japanese invaders. One of the paintings is already on display at the museum, while the other, which has been called an "earth-shattering" find, is likely headed to Korea for conservation.

"This is like discovering a lost Vermeer," said Shawn Eichman, curator of Asian art at the museum, referring to the Dutch master.

The paintings — a graceful landscape and an image of a contemplative scholar observing a garden — are from the collection of Richard Lane, an art collector and dealer who studied at the University of Hawaii and later helped catalog the museum’s James Michener collection of Japanese prints. Lane, who died in 2002, lived in Japan for about 50 years and bequeathed his personal library to the museum.

When museum officials went to Japan to claim the materials, they came across his separate personal collection. It contained some 20,000 items, including more than 3,000 paintings, books made from woodblocks, and other artifacts. The museum acquired the entire collection for about $26,000 in 2003, but without a catalog, it was unclear what it contained.

It can be difficult to distinguish between Chinese, Korean and Japanese paintings, Eichman said. The style was first developed in ancient China and spread as Chinese influence extended throughout the region, eventually claiming Korea as a tribute state. The paintings feature an ink-washed, minimalist style, often using just a few strokes to define objects and figures.

Many paintings in the Lane collection were initially identified as "Chinese, question mark; Japanese, question mark; Korean, question mark" — an indication of uncertainty over their origins, Eichman said.

Compounding the difficulty of identifying pre-16th-century Korean paintings is that so few survived the Japanese invasions, which started in 1592 and lasted until 1596.

"They basically destroyed everything. They started at the bottom of the peninsula and just burned their way up," Eichman said, adding that one of the paintings is so rare that there are "probably fewer than 20" of its genre still in existence.

With no catalogue or other means of determining the contents of the Lane collection, Asian art experts have been studying the pieces over the past decade. In January, a group of Korean experts — including the world’s leading expert on Korean art, Chung Woo-Thak of Dongguk University — came to Hawaii after initially studying some photos the museum had sent as part of an application for a conservation grant. The team was funded by the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea, a program aimed at conserving and promoting Korean heritage.

"They told us, ‘We normally expect to find paintings like this in the Metropolitan Museum (in New York), but we don’t expect to find them anywhere else,’" Eichman said.

One of the final paintings shown to the experts depicts a group of scholars meeting in a small pavilion set amid a pastoral landscape. Small boats, with sails appearing more like those found on Western sloops than on Asian junks, ply the waters of a calm lake, while rocky, pillar-like mountains sit powerfully in the background. An inscription written in flowing calligraphy — in Chinese characters and using a Chinese dating method in practice at the time — dates the work to the fall of 1586.

"This was one of those mystery paintings," Eichman said, so he decided to show it to the experts to get a definitive opinion on its origins.

The painting immediately piqued the experts’ interest. Chung, who had been passive throughout much of the visit, "got up right away" to get a close look, and the experts conversed among themselves for almost an hour, taking photos of every inch. "They came back and said this is very important," Eichman said.

The painting is important because it is dated just a few years before the Japanese invasions and because it depicts a meeting of scholars, a particular genre of painting, Eichman said. The inscription was by a famous Korean poet, who is believed to be one of the participants in the meeting.

"They’re deciphering the inscription now, but we hope that once they decipher the inscription, they’ll be able to identify what gathering it was and then go back and match it up with the historical records," Eichman said. "It’s like finding a painting of a known gathering between Jefferson and Adams in Washington. That’s what skyrocketed it in terms of its importance."

Museum officials expect to receive grant money to send the painting to Korea for conservation, a painstaking process that may take up to a year. Eichman said he expects it to get a grand unveiling in Korea before it is returned to Hawaii.

"The news about this painting has just spread beyond our wildest dreams," Eichman said. "My inbox has been filled every day with people writing to find out more about the painting."

The other pre-16th-century painting was put on display at the museum about three weeks ago. It depicts the Chinese philosopher and cosmologist Zhou Dunyi, a standard subject of the day, in contemplation beside a small pool with lily pads. Eichman, who first saw the painting seven years ago, identified it as Korean because of some pottery in the background. He hopes to have it conserved next year, but because it is not as badly deteriorated as the painting of the scholars, it was deemed suitable for display.

Korean government officials have already come to the museum, which has the oldest display of Korean art outside of Korea, to look at the paintings. International art journals are planning to write about the discoveries, Eichman said.

"It’s a rare experience for us in the Asian art department to have such an overwhelming interest in what we’re doing."

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Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S. Beretania St., is open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. Call 532-8700 or visit honolulumuseum.org.