November 4, 2025
SEOUL – The Gyeongju National Museum will limit the number of daily visitors to an unprecedented exhibition showing six gold crowns discovered in the royal tombs of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC-AD 935) in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.
“Silla Gold Crowns: Power and Prestige,” organized to coincide with APEC 2025, opened to the public Sunday, with a long line forming outside before the museum opened at 10 a.m.
The state museum announced Sunday that the number of visitors would be limited to 2,550 per day, with 150 people per viewing session. Tickets will be distributed at the museum from 9:20 a.m., with visitors admitted every 30 minutes.
The gold crowns on show are usually held by different museums across Korea, and have been brought together in one place for the first time. Also among the 20 gold artifacts on view are six belts. The exhibition runs through Dec. 15.
One of the six crowns in the exhibition is a designated National Treasure excavated in 1973 at Cheonmachong, meaning “tomb of heavenly horse,” derived from a mural found inside the tomb. A replica of the crown made using gold was presented to US President Donald Trump on Wednesday by South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, drawing international attention to the artifact.
The ancient Silla Kingdom is often called the “Golden Kingdom,” known for its gold artifacts that surpass those of Goguryeo and Baekje, the two other kingdoms of Korea’s Three Kingdoms period, which ran for about 700 years starting in the late first century BC.
The first gold crown was discovered in 1921 at Geumgwanchong, a tomb in Noseo-dong, during a construction project. Estimated to have been made in the fifth century, the gold crown, also designated a National Treasure, is regarded as the leading example of Silla’s gold crowns.
