NAVER's 11 September 2026 announcement confirms the service was available by that date; the exact first day of operation is not stated. The Gansong Art and Culture Foundation and Naver Labs have launched a 'VR Tour' service that lets the public explore the Gansong Art Museum's Bohwagak exhibition hall and its 'Munhwaboguk' ('Culture for the Nation') collection online, year-round, via PC or mobile browser. Previously, the museum in Seoul was open to the public only during its regular spring and autumn exhibition periods. The VR Tour follows the actual visitor route through Bohwagak, letting users move through the space, select individual works, and read detailed descriptions -- recreating the in-person exhibition experience. The tour is built on a digital twin that Naver Labs constructed using its own vision technology, which performs 3D mapping of spaces and objects from smartphone-camera footage alone, without lidar or other specialized scanning equipment. The digital twin also preserves relics that have physically left the museum: a Qing Dynasty stone lion statue that stood at the museum's entrance for decades was donated to China in July 2026 and can now be viewed only in the VR space. Two outdoor stone monuments with limited public access are also included. Through September 23, 2026, entries to a museum photo contest marking the 120th anniversary of founder Jeon Hyeong-pil's birth are being integrated into the tour.
Quotes
“Following the National Museum of Korea, it is highly significant that the Gansong Art Museum's precious cultural heritage has been rendered in digital space using Naver Labs' spatial intelligence technology, enabling anyone to appreciate it without time or location constraints.”
