Korea

Near the end hang two small pictures by Lee Jung-seop, who was cut off from his family by the Korean War. One shows him sailing home to his wife and children. The other, scratched into the foil of a cigarette packet, shows prisoners bound in chains.

The show fills the round gallery above the Reading Room. A spine of brightly lit cases runs from Iron Age rattles to the present, with darker side rooms for Buddhist sutras, celadon and other deep dives, and a soundtrack of birdsong, wind and a temple bell. Almost everything comes from the collection of the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, now in Korea's national museums.

The critics split on the ending. The Standard thought the modern rooms finish on a high. The Guardian found the lurch into the 20th century broke the spell, and the Telegraph called the whole thing "dutiful". All three loved the older pieces. Afterwards, take the train to New Malden, London's Koreatown, and end 2,000 years on a bibimbap.