Heritage office lifts travel ban on ‘Pensive Bodhisattva’

The Silla-period gilt-bronze Buddha statue “Pensive Bodhisattva” will be traveling to New York for an upcoming show after the Cultural Heritage Administration on Friday rescinded its ban on the National Treasure No. 83 from being taken out of the country.

The reversal came 11 days after the National Museum of Korea was notified of the travel ban on July 29.

With the green light from the state-run heritage agency, “Pensive Bodhisattva” will take its place as the highlight of the “Silla, Korea’s Golden Kingdom” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from Oct. 29-Feb. 23, 2014.

The National Museum of Korea and the exhibition partner Metropolitan Museum are reported to have appealed the ban, promising that the safe handling of the artifacts during the packaging and transportation processes would be of utmost priority.

The Cultural Heritage Administration had earlier banned the “Pensive Bodhisattva” from being taken out of the country on grounds that the statue had already been shown overseas eight times for a total of 3,000 days and that there were concerns about the ancient artifact getting damaged.

By Kim Hoo-ran (khooran@heraldcorp.com)