A gallery text introducing the Arts of Korea at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (VANK) South Korea's cyber diplomacy group VANK has called on New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art to revise texts in its Korean gallery, arguing that several descriptions present a biased interpretation of Korean history and culture.The organization said Monday it will launch a campaign urging the museum to amend what it described as four problematic historical and cultural narratives embedded in gallery texts dedicated to Korean art."The findings were made during VANK's recent visit to the United States to attend the 44th Annual Conference of the Korean Schools Association in New Jersey.The team, including Park Ki-tae, president of VANK, is still in the US and sent a formal letter to the museum. We are waiting for the museum’s response,” an official from the group told The Korea Herald on Monday. A gallery text for the Arts of Asia at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (VANK) According to VANK, the museum's introductory panel described Korea as "emerging as a unified nation in the seventh century."The group argues that such wording understates the “scope of earlier Korean states,” including Gojoseon, Goguryeo and Balhae.The museum's description of Korea also places excessive emphasis on the nation's role as a recipient and transmitter of outside influences rather than as an independent creator of culture, mentioning Korea as the “end of the ancient trade route known as the Silk Road.”“The people of Korea have received, transformed and passed on artistic styles as well as philosophies and religions,” the text reads.The civic group stressed that "Korean art was not merely a conduit for outside influences. It developed its own aesthetic traditions and creative achievements, including Goryeo celadon, Joseon white porcelain and Hangul (Korean writing system)."VANK also took issue with the gallery's interpretation of the moon jar, a white porcelain vessel from the Joseon era that has become a cultural icon of Korean culture.The museum describes the vessel, formed by joining two hemispheres, as a metaphor for Korea's modern history of occupation, war and division into two nations.“Interpreting an 18th-century Joseon moon jar through the lens of the Cold War and Korea's division is an anachronistic reading that disregards the artifact's original historical context,” VANK said in a statement.The group further said it found the omission of Dokdo and the East Sea from maps displayed in the Korean gallery."Just as VANK identified these issues in a single day, we hope Korean Embassies, cultural centers and education centers across the United States will examine how Korea is represented in local museums, while citizens also help report similar cases worldwide," Park said in a statement.VANK, short for the Voluntary Agency Network of Korea, is a civic organization founded in 1999 to promote Korea's history, culture and global image. The group has campaigned to correct what it sees as inaccuracies about Korea in overseas textbooks, maps, museums and online platforms.