Places · Art museums · Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
National Art Museums: hours, closing days and admission
Korea's national art museum, MMCA, is four separate buildings under one name — Seoul, Deoksugung, Gwacheon and Cheongju — each with its own hours, price and closing day. Everyone aged 24 or under and 65 or over gets in free, and at Seoul and Deoksugung admission is free after 6pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Hours, closing days and admission, side by side
Checked against each institution's own visitor pages on 2026-09-21. Fees and hours change — follow the official link in the table before you travel.
| Place | Region | Hours | Closed | Admission | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMCA SeoulNational Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea · Ministry of Culture, Sports and TourismSamcheong-ro, on the east side of Gyeongbokgung | Seoul | Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sun 10:00 am – 6:00 pm; Wed and Sat 10:00 am – 9:00 pm | 1 January, Seollal and Chuseok (open on Mondays) | KRW 10,000 combined ticket; free after 6pm on Wed and Sat and on Culture Day | Official |
| MMCA GwacheonNational Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea · Ministry of Culture, Sports and TourismNear Seoul Grand Park, with an outdoor sculpture park | Gyeonggi | Tuesday–Sunday 10:00 am – 6:00 pm | Mondays and 1 January | KRW 3,000; free on Culture Day | Official |
| MMCA DeoksugungNational Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea · Ministry of Culture, Sports and TourismInside Deoksugung Palace; early modern Korean art | Seoul | Tue, Thu, Fri, Sun 10:00 am – 6:00 pm; Wed and Sat 10:00 am – 9:00 pm | Mondays and 1 January | KRW 2,000 plus KRW 1,000 palace admission; free during the Wed and Sat evening opening | Official |
| MMCA CheongjuNational Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea · Ministry of Culture, Sports and TourismOpen-storage building and conservation science centre | Chungbuk | Tuesday–Sunday 10:00 am – 6:00 pm | Mondays and 1 January | Open storage on floors 1 to 4 free; special exhibitions on floor 5 KRW 2,000 | Official |
About National Art Museums
There is only one national art museum in Korea, and the confusing part is that it is in four places at once. MMCA was founded at Gwacheon, took over a building inside Deoksugung for its early modern collection, opened the Seoul building beside Gyeongbokgung in 2013, and added an open-storage facility at Cheongju. They share a name, a director and a ticketing philosophy, and almost nothing else that affects your day.
For a visitor the practical consequences are the closing days and the free evenings. The Seoul building is open on Mondays while the other three are not, which makes it the Monday option in a city where most museums shut. Seoul and Deoksugung both open into the evening twice a week and charge nothing during it. And Deoksugung, uniquely, sits inside a palace you must pay to enter before you can pay to enter the museum.
- The Seoul building and Gyeongbokgung are a ten-minute walk apart, which makes them the natural pair for one afternoon.
- Gwacheon's sculpture park is outdoors and free to walk even when you are not going into the galleries.
Art museums, one by one
Names that link go to our visiting guide; the rest go straight to the institution's own site.
Frequently asked questions
Is MMCA one museum or four?
One institution in four buildings, in four different places, up to ninety minutes apart. Tickets are not interchangeable and each building sets its own hours and price, so treat them as separate visits and pick by what you want to see rather than assuming a single trip covers them.
How do I get in for nothing?
If you are 24 or under or 65 or over, always. Otherwise, at the Seoul and Deoksugung buildings after 6pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and on Culture Day, the last Wednesday of every month, when admission is free across the board.
Which building opens on Mondays?
Only Seoul. Gwacheon, Deoksugung and Cheongju all close on Mondays. Since the National Museum of Korea, the National Folk Museum and the contemporary history museum are also open on Mondays, a Monday in central Seoul is a perfectly workable art-and-museum day.
Why does Deoksugung cost twice?
The building stands inside Deoksugung Palace, so you pay the palace admission to reach it and the museum admission to go in. Both are small sums, but arriving expecting a single ticket is a common surprise. During the Wednesday and Saturday evening opening the museum half is free.
What is the Cheongju building for?
It is open storage: works are shelved and racked in view rather than hung in galleries, alongside a conservation science centre. Floors one to four are free and the special exhibition floor is ticketed. It is a genuinely different kind of visit and a long way from Seoul.
Pages checked: www.mmca.go.kr · www.mmca.go.kr