Korea: 2,000 Years of Creativity

Korea: 2,000 Years of Creativity fills the Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery (Room 35) at the British Museum from 1 October 2026 to 31 January 2027. Lead curator Sang-ah Kim, who looks after the museum’s Korean collections, has hung about 185 works drawn largely from the roughly 23,000 pieces the family of the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee gave Korea’s national museums in 2021. Loans come from the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, with a handful of British Museum objects. London is the denser National Treasure stop after earlier tour editions in Washington and Chicago; Korean press has counted twenty-seven objects across ten National Treasure designations in this hang. Start with Jeong Seon’s Clearing after Rain on Mount Inwang (1751), then stay for the thirteenth-century gourd-shaped celadon ewer, Three Kingdoms gilt bronze, burial shoes, and folk paintings such as Tiger and Magpie.

Book Room 35 online before you invent a Bloomsbury loop. Early-bird adults have listed from £14; confirm the live band before you leave the hotel. Miss 1-2 December, when the hang closes for a light-sensitive rotation, and 24-26 December, when the museum itself is shut. A free audio tour on selected highlights is promised on the British Museum Audio app from October. After the ticketed show, walk to the free Korea Foundation Gallery in Room 67 for the museum’s permanent Korean collection. Sang-ah Kim’s companion volume from British Museum Press (hardback, museum shop listed around £35, RRP £40) can wait until winter. Tottenham Court Road and Holborn are the nearest stations. Pair a Frieze or PAD midweek morning here, or keep Asian Art in London for late October and use the British Museum as the quieter counterweight.