Collector open to return of Buddha statue

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A private collector who has a "mummy Buddha" statue in his possession says he is willing to give it back to a Chinese village if it can be proved it was stolen from there.

Chinese Buddha statue with a mummy hidden inside is exhibited at the Hungarian Natural Histroy Museum in Budapest on March 3, 2015. [Photo: Xinhua]

Chinese Buddha statue with a mummy hidden inside is exhibited at the Hungarian Natural Histroy Museum in Budapest on March 3, 2015. [Photo: Xinhua]

Dutch daily newspaper NRC quoted the collector, an architect in Amsterdam who wishes to remain anonymous, as saying that if it is proven the statue belongs to "for example a Buddhist community that still exists" he is willing to return it, so long as it does not go into a state museum.

He told NRC that some of the pictures published in the Chinese media did look similar to the statue he owns but many aspects were "not right."

"It is said the statue was stolen in 1995, but it was already in the Netherlands at that time. There are pictures of that as proof," he said.

"Also, recent research shows that the mummy belongs to a temple much bigger and more important than the local temple in Yangchun."

The 1,000-year-old Buddha statue, which contains the mummified body of a monk, was part of an exhibition from January to August last year in Holland's Drents Museum before it was sent to Budapest for an exhibition at the Hungarian Natural History Museum due to last until May.

Villagers in Yangchun, in southeast China's Fujian Province, saw reports about the Hungarian exhibition on TV and said the statue was the one stolen from their temple.

On Tuesday, an official with China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage said that based on photographs, local archives and witness statements, it could confirm the statue was the one stolen from Yangchun in 1995.

Vincent van Vilsteren, curator of the Drents Museum, said it had the statue on loan until last Friday. The owner had since taken it back to Amsterdam.

The collector had pulled the statue from the exhibition "out of fear it would be seized," the newspaper said.

It said the owner had invested a lot in research into the statue and needed more money to find out where it really came from. The result of a DNA test, which should come out soon, could help with that.

The collector said he spent US$19,746 to acquire the statue. He also said he had declined an offer of 10 million euros (US$10.9 million) for it.

Vilsteren said both the museum and the collector were aware that the Chinese villagers and Chinese authorities were seeking the statue's return.

He would transfer messages from the Chinese side to the owner.

He said the statue was in perfect condition and there was no need to worry that any harm would come to it. "We have taken very good care of the statue. It has been to the restorer who fixed little cracks and chips that were missing," Vilsteren said. "Honestly, I think the statue is now in better condition than it was 20 years ago."

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