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Dutch Collector Ordered To Return Smuggled Mummified Buddha Statue

A Chinese court on Friday ordered a 1,000-year-old Buddha statue Zhanggong Zushi be returned to its original site in east China's Fujian Province within 30 days. The statue was stolen over two decades ago and smuggled overseas.
The Sanming Intermediate People's Court of Fujian Province pronounced the villagers of Yangchun and Dongpu in Datian County have the proprietary right to the Buddha statue and the right to recover the precious cultural relic. The relic is in the possession of the defendant Oscar van Overeem, a Dutch art collector, who bought it in mid-1996.

Source: South China Morning Post

The verdict will come into effect if an appeal is not made to a higher court within 30 days, according to Chinese Civil Procedure Law.
Zhanggong Zushi, originally named Zhang Qisan, was a revered monk of China's Song Dynasty (960-1279). After his death at the age of 37, his body was mummified and encased in the statue. The statue was enshrined in the Puzhao Temple, jointly owned by the two villages and worshiped by the local residents, for over 1,000 years until it went missing in 1995.
It resurfaced again at an exhibition in Hungary in March 2015, when villagers and Fujian provincial cultural heritage administration recognized it as the lost Buddha Zhanggong Zushi. In February of the same year, a scan revealed it contained the mummified remains of the Buddhist monk.

Source: South China Morning Post

After an unsuccessfully negotiation, the villages sued Van Overeem to demand the Buddha's return in Fujian Province in 2015 and in the Netherlands in 2016, respectively. The Amsterdam court of the Netherlands held the first hearing on the case on July 14, 2017 without a decision, while the Fujian court heard it twice in July and October of 2018.
The Sanming Intermediate People's Court stated that the Buddha statue Zhanggong Zushi is an important token in its birthplace and long-term preservation place, which carries the spiritual sustenance of many local believers. Only after it returns and integrates into local people's lives, can it regain its vitality.
As a cultural relic owned by local villagers, its proprietorship is protected by law; and as the cultural property of human remains, it needs to return to its original cultural atmosphere and native environment, added the court.
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