National Palace Museum of Korea

This guide to the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul follows a small gold and silver stamp that surfaced for sale in the United States in 2008, and the historians who spent three months testing it against old palace records. It traces the stamp back to Gojong, Korea's last king and first emperor, and the secret letters he sent abroad as Japan tightened its grip on the country. Occupation authorities were thought to have destroyed every seal like it decades earlier. Look closely at the dragon coiled on its handle before you move on.