Benin Bronzes | Room 25

Ten-story pagoda

This tall stone once stood in what is now North Korea. Dismantled during the Japanese occupation and later rebuilt in Seoul, it carries the traces of travel, loss, and the long return of beauty.

Golden Crown

This dazzling gold shows how the Korean peninsula was already connected to the wider Eurasian world - through trade, belief, and imagination that shimmered across thousands of miles.

Hand axe

This quiet stone changed how we see East Asia. Shaped nearly 300,000 years ago, it revealed that early humans here made tools just like those in Africa and Europe, proving that the story of human beginnings was never one-directional.

Songline Painting | Room 24

Across the desert, stories were maps. These Songlines told people where to find water, food, and how to walk the land — a memory system sung aloud.

Benin Bronzes | Room 25

Bronze heads and coral crowns, history stolen.