Sales of "MU:DS," the cultural merchandise brand operated by Korea's national museums, are soaring on the wave of the K-culture boom.
According to cultural industry sources Wednesday, cumulative sales of "MU:DS," the museum merchandise brand run by the National Museum Foundation of Korea, reached approximately 21.8 billion won from January to June this year. That marks an increase of about 90 percent from roughly 11.48 billion won in the same period a year earlier.
Since the foundation was established in 2004, "MU:DS" has grown steadily, recording sales in the 10 billion won range for the first time in 2022 and posting an all-time high annual revenue of about 41.3 billion won last year. This year, it surpassed its 2024 full-year sales record (about 21.284 billion won) in just half a year.
"MU:DS" is cultural merchandise created based on the collections of the National Museum of Korea and its affiliated regional museums. The name combines "museum" and "goods."
Products that drove sales include the Pensive Bodhisattva miniature, the Pensive Bodhisattva miniature Maeum (Mind) series, the dancheong keyboard, the Admiral Yi Sun-sin jeonrip hat wine stopper, the moon jar door chime, and the "three drunken scholars" color-changing cup set.
In particular, the Pensive Bodhisattva miniature sold about 12,000 units in the first half alone, reaching a cumulative sales figure of 61,000 units. The Pensive Bodhisattva miniature drew attention after it became known that BTS member RM owned one. In February this year, President Lee Jae-myung and his wife Kim Hye-kyung visited the museum and struck the same pose as the "cheek-heart" Pensive Bodhisattva, generating buzz.
The foundation also said that products unveiled on March 20 in collaboration with BTS generated about 43 million won in sales at the museum shop alone in just two days.
According to the National Museum of Korea, cumulative visitors from January to May this year totaled 3,255,160, far exceeding the number of visitors in the same period last year (2,241,592). Foreign visitors kept coming as well. In the first half of this year, sales to foreign customers reached about 1 billion won, growing nearly 100 percent from the same period last year.
"We will continue to enhance our brand competitiveness and product appeal so that people around the world, beyond just Korea, can experience the value of our cultural heritage in their daily lives," said CEO Jung Yong-seok.
