Korea's Flagship Museum Reopens Silla Hall

KOREA TIMES
By Baek Byung-yeul

This Buddhist statue believed to be made in the Unified Silla Kingdom is one of the highlights at National Museum of Korea's new Silla exhibition hall.

KOREA---Many remember that there was a huge controversy over the Cultural Administration Heritage's (CHA) decision to loan the Maitreya in Meditation, the country's most famous Buddhist statue, to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) last year. Nevertheless, some Korean expected that the seventh century gilt-bronze Buddhist statue would wow the audience at the Met's "Silla: Korea's Golden Kingdom" exhibition, which was held from November to February in New York, displaying artifacts of the Korean Peninsula's ancient Silla Kingdom (B.C. 57-A.D. 935). The biggest highlight was the cast-iron Buddhist statue, believed to be made between the late 7th and 10th century of the Unified Silla Kingdom (668-935) period, Korea's first unified country. [link]