Gyeongju National Museum said Monday that its special exhibition “Silla Gold Crowns: Power and Prestige,” which ended Feb. 22, drew a total of 285,401 visitors.
The exhibition opened to the public on Nov. 2, 2025, and ran for 110 days through Feb. 22, 2026. The museum estimated average daily attendance at about 2,594.
Attendance was capped at 150 people per time slot, or 2,550 a day, but every slot sold out, with more than 270,000 visitors coming during the run.
The show also sparked an “open run” trend, with visitors lining up before the museum opened, popularizing the term “gold crown open run.”
Boosted by the exhibition, the museum’s cumulative visitor total this year reached 401,683 as of Feb. 22, about 2.4 times the 169,464 recorded over the same period last year.
The surge was also evident during the five-day Lunar New Year holiday period (2. 14.~2. 18.). Even with the museum closed on Lunar New Year’s Day, attendance totaled 72,005.
“The golden culture of Silla is a defining feature of Silla culture,” the museum said, adding that it plans to hold related exhibitions every 10 years by compiling research findings from Korea and abroad, aiming to make them signature shows for the museum and for Gyeongju.
In the next exhibition, the museum said it will broaden the scope of “gold crowns” in spatial and conceptual terms, presenting not only six Silla gold crowns but also a range of crowns from Korea and overseas. It also plans to expand beyond band-style crowns (帶冠) to include hat-style crowns (帽冠).
Director Yoon Sang-deok said the museum will continue working to promote the excellence of Silla culture by actively staging special exhibitions in Korea and abroad.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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