Today, Sunday 22 February 2026, marks the closing day of Terracotta Warriors: Legacy of the First Emperor at WA Museum Boola Bardip, Perth — Western Australia’s largest museum event to date. Across 225+ artefacts and 10 original terracotta figures, the exhibition moves from Qin Shihuang’s rise to the mausoleum’s vast, still-unfinished mysteries, amplified by digital storytelling, after-hours Jade Nights, and city-scale Illuminate projections that turned the Cultural Centre into a night spectacle.
Today, Sunday 22 February 2026, marks the closing day of Terracotta Warriors: Legacy of the First Emperor at WA Museum Boola Bardip, Perth — Western Australia’s largest museum event to date. Across 225+ artefacts and 10 original terracotta figures, the exhibition moves from Qin Shihuang’s rise to the mausoleum’s vast, still-unfinished mysteries, amplified by digital storytelling, after-hours Jade Nights, and city-scale Illuminate projections that turned the Cultural Centre into a night spectacle.
February 22, 2026
The story begins before the famous faces. You move through the Qin Dynasty’s rise and its system-building momentum — reforms that reshaped infrastructure, writing, currency, and law, before the show pivots into its main reveal: the army as an engineered theatre of power. The figures feel uncannily present. Each warrior carries distinct features: facial details, hair, body type, like a portrait gallery disguised as military formation.
Beyond the warriors, the object highlights work like plot twists. A bronze swan, once painted bright white, evokes the mausoleum’s fabled pleasure garden; a meticulously constructed stone armour suit, up to 600 stone pieces laced with bronze wire, turns afterlife protection into design obsession. Nearby, the monumental Bo bell of the Duke of Qin (64 cm, 46.5 kg) anchors the exhibition in the sound-world of ritual. Then comes the fresh-glinting surprise: gold ornaments newly unearthed from the Nanling tomb of Empress Dowager Bo, presented internationally for the first time.
Technology here serves storytelling rather than spectacle. Visitors receive a Bi magnet to activate “heavenly portal” stations, unlocking projected objects linked to Qin Shihuang’s tomb mythology, before entering a final immersive sequence where the emperor’s sealed burial chamber becomes a luminous conjecture, complete with historical accounts of mercury “rivers” and modern detection of elevated mercury levels.
Outside the gallery, the Terracotta Warriors: Legacy of the First Emperor exhibition expanded into a city-scale season: Illuminate: Terracotta Warriors projected animated scenes across the Old Gaol facade nightly (5:30pm–10:30pm), Jade Nights ran after-hours on Fridays, families gathered for Warrior World on monthly Sundays, and a Closing Festival (17–20 Feb 2026) fused lanterns, performances, and extended evening viewing.
The numbers explain the cultural buzz: the WA Government marked 100,000 visitors in the first eight weeks, projecting totals beyond the original 180,000 forecast. With timed sessions, season passes, gift vouchers, and a dedicated retail range, the Terracotta Warriors: Legacy of the First Emperor show became both museum landmark and economic engine, a lesson in how ancient history still moves modern crowds.
