Buddhist statue excluded from Met exhibition
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Maitreya in Meditation, a 7th-century gilt-bronze Buddhist statue
By Kim Tong-hyung
The Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) has disallowed the country’s most famous Buddhist statue from being shown at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art later this year.
The National Museum of Korea had previously agreed to provide 26 artifacts from the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-935 A.D.), including 12 national treasures, for the Met’s “Silla: Korea’s Golden Kingdom” exhibition scheduled for October. The exhibition was to be highlighted by the Maitreya in Meditation, a 7th-century gilt-bronze Buddhist statue designated as national treasure No. 83.
The decision to exclude the statue from the exhibition is a controversial one as the CHA’s cultural asset committee had approved the loan to the Met in a meeting last year. However, the administration has taken an about turn under new chief Byun Young-sup, named by President Park Geun-hye earlier this year.
The CHA, which has the authority to approve cross-border movement of state-protected cultural assets, had expressed discomfort about the number of significant artifacts planned to be shown at the Met.
They were particularly concerned about the Maitreya, which they believe has been shown at foreign exhibitions too frequently in recent years. The 90-centimeter statue has been displayed seven times overseas since 1976 when it was displayed in the “5,000 Years of Korean Art” exhibition at the National Museum of Japan.