British Museum opens major Korea exhibition spanning 2,000 years

The British Museum in London has opened a new exhibition on Korea, surveying what curators describe as 2,000 years of creativity in the country.

The show follows the museum's high-profile Bayeux tapestry exhibition and includes objects such as a bronze bell cast in the eighth century for a Buddhist monastery, decorated with dragons, flames and floral embossments.

Other highlights from the exhibition's Buddhist period include hand-copied sutras and small statuettes of bodhisattvas, reflecting the interaction between the contemplative religion from India and artistic influences from China.

The exhibition also addresses Korea's history in the 20th century, a period of upheaval that followed centuries the museum's curators describe as comparatively calm, as reflected in the country's art.