As Korean art continues its ambitious global itinerary this year, the National Museum of Korea (NMK) is repositioning itself to meet that rising demand while rethinking how it presents the nation’s cultural legacy. A millennia-spanning trove of antiquities from the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s collection is traveling to the Art Institute of Chicago in March and the British Museum in September, following a well-received run at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C. Relics from the ancient Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D. 935) will be spotlighted at Guimet Museum in Paris and the Shanghai Museum, while the Tokyo National Museum is pairing Buddhist masterpieces from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) with the refined court culture of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The surge of interest is tangible. “Since I took office as director of the NMK seven months ago, 10 overseas museum directors and two culture ministers have visited, all expressing a desire to collaborate with us,” NMK director You Hong-june said at a forum hosted by the Kwanhun Club in Seoul o