Museums & Galleries

The big ones are free

The National Museum of Korea is among the largest museums in the world and its permanent galleries cost nothing. So do the National Folk Museum and the National Palace Museum, both inside the Gyeongbokgung grounds, and the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan.

⚠️ What is ticketed is the special exhibitions — and those are the ones being advertised, with the queue outside, which is why visitors regularly conclude the museum charges and walk away.

Where to start

At the National Museum, take the Path to History hall on the ground floor in order; it is the chronological spine and it ends at a ten-storey marble pagoda standing the full height of the atrium. Then the Pensive Bodhisattva on the third floor, in its own darkened room, and the Silla gold crowns. Everything after that is a bonus.

Art

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art has several branches, of which the Seoul one beside Gyeongbokgung and the Deoksugung one inside the palace are the central pair. Leeum in Hannam-dong is the major private collection, in three buildings by three well-known architects. Seoul Museum of Art is near Deoksugung and its permanent collection is free.

⭐ Commercial galleries cluster in Samcheong-dong and Insadong, and walking into them is free and expected.

⚠️ Closing days and the two holidays

Museum closing days in Seoul are not uniform. Several close on Monday; the National Museum keeps a different pattern. What is close to universal is that the major institutions shut on Seollal and Chuseok — the lunar new year and the harvest festival — whose dates move every year and which are the two times of year when a great deal of the country stops. Check before you travel across town.