The National Museum of Korea succeeded in attracting the most number of visitors in Asia last year according to the findings of an art publication based in Britain in mid-May.
“The Art Newspaper,” which makes extensive coverage of the fields of art, culture and museums worldwide, revealed in its April edition that Korea’s National Museum came first in the number of visitors in Asia. The exact figure showed a total of 2,730,204 visitors in the year 2009.
The figure is the 10th largest museum attendance in the world. Taiwan’s National Palace Museum took 12th place with 2.57 million visitors and Japan’s Tokyo National Museum was in 14th place with 2.27 million visitors. The French Louvre Museum took first place with an attendance of 8.5 million.
The National Museum of Korea also excelled in the number of daily visitors, taking second place in the ancient relics display section with its exhibition “Egypt, the Great Civilization” that ran from Apr. 28 to Aug. 30.
Also in the section for Asian relics display, the National Museum of Korea ranked 7th in the world. This was for an exhibition of relics for the centennial anniversary of the Korean museum from Sept. 29 to Nov. 8. The year 2009 commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the first modern museum in Korea.
The paper publicized the results on May 18, which celebrates International Museum Day and encourages museums worldwide to commemorate the event through various functions.
“This latest survey shows that the National Museum of Korea has gone beyond just representing Korea to become one of the top museums in Asia,” said museum director Choe Kwang-sik. “Ever since we moved from Gyeongbokgung Palace to Yongsan district in 2005, we have tried hard to make the museum a friendly place to visit. The effort seems to have paid off.”
Another reason for the rising popularity of the museum can be attributed to the various hands-on programs launched for the whole family and international visitors. The story-telling program and crafts class especially help young children to identify with events and relics of long time ago.
The museum is now holding its fourth exhibition dedicated a one of the world’s great civilizations. This year it presents “Gods, Heroes and Mortals: Art and Life in Ancient Greece,” from May 1 to Aug. 29, closely following other great exhibitions since 2008: “The Glory of Persia,” “Egypt, the Great Civilization” and “The Great Myth and Mystery of Peruvian Civilization, Inca.”
For more information visit the museum’s website.
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