Battle for the Buddha

tea

Battle for the Buddha: Angry Chinese villagers sue Dutch art collector who 'refuses to return stolen statue' containing mummified remains of meditating monk

•                         Villagers in         Yangchun, China, claim statue was stolen from them in 1995
•                         They have hired         seven Chinese lawyers to bring the case to Dutch court
•                         The relic,         owned by a Dutch collector, is currently on display in Budapest
•                         Chinese media         said owner first agreed to return but now wants $20 million
  
  

                By CHLOE         LYME FOR MAILONLINE

                PUBLISHED: 18:13 GMT, 20 November 2015 | UPDATED: 21:18 GMT, 20 November         2015

                After months of fighting and hundreds of signatures signed, villagers in         Yangchun, south-east China's Fujian Province, have hired a group of top         lawyers in hope of getting back a golden Buddha statue they claim belonged         to them.

                They believe the treasured relic was stolen from them 20 years ago and is         now in the hands of an unidentified Dutch art collector who is refusing to         return it, reports The         People's Daily Online.

                The Buddha, which is around 1000-years-old, also conceals the remains of a         mummified monk who was discovered inside the statue during a CT scan in         February.

                Scroll down for video

                A group of Chinese villagers claim the Buddha statue (left) containing a         mummified monk (right) was stolen from their temple in 1995

                Scientists in the Netherlands were shocked after CT scan of the statue in         February revealed mummified remains of meditating monk

                After going through private channels with the collector to negotiate the         Buddha's return, nothing had been resolved, so representatives from the         village signed an agreement with seven lawyers to bring the case to Dutch         court.

                It is thought that the Dutch collector first responded by agreeing to return         the statue if it was proven to have belonged to a Buddhist community that         still exists, but the owner later changed mind and asked for $20 million in         trade for the statue, according to People's         Daily Online.

                Lin Wenqing, party chief of Yangchun village, claims the statue has been         worshiped as a god in the village temple for around 1,000 years.

                The mummified body inside the golden statue is said to be that of Zhanggong         Zushi, a local monk who helped treat disease and spread Buddhist belief.

                When he died at the age of 37, his body was mummified and placed inside the         statue during China's Song Dynasty (960-1279).

                Villagers in Yangchun believe the statue was stolen in 1995.

                The only thing that was left behind was the hat and clothes which are still         in the temple.

                Liu Yang, who successfully led a Chinese legal team in recovering relics         looted from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, is leading the group of         lawyers to fight for the Buddha's return.  

Mummified monk stolen from a village in Fujian Province, China

                The golden Buddha statue, which is currently on display at the Natural         History Museum in Budapest

Pictured right is a Buddha once displayed at the temple in Yangchun village. Locals believe it was the same statue owned by the unidentified Dutch collector

                Liu said they have finished collecting evidence on the case and will bring         it to court by the end of this year.

                'The validity period for recovering the relic is going to expire next year.         So we have pressure to complete the legal work quickly,' he said.

                He added they are extremely optimistic about the case as there are 'no         evident flaws or obstacles' in arguing the statue was stolen from the         village temple.

                According to the report, Liu will fly to the Netherlands in December to meet         with a Dutch counterpart for the case.

                In March hundreds of residents from the village wrote and signed a letter to         Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, pleading for return of the Buddha.

                The letter was handed to European-Chinese groups in the Netherlands, who         delivered it via the Chinese embassy.

                The golden Buddha statue is currently on display at the Natural History         Museum in Budapest.

Read more:

•         en.people.cn/n/2...
•         Read more at the People's Daily Online
  

                http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ ... editating-monk.html

3hhh.cn/393 :Battle for the Buddha: Angry Chinese villagers sue Dutch art collector:3hjj.cn/393  

ezgw

China Exclusive: Fujian villagers sue after Dutch collector refuses to return stolen god

FUZHOU, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- A group of Chinese villagers has hired a team of top lawyers to sue a Dutch collector after he refused to return a mummified Buddha statue believed to have been stolen 20 years ago.
Representatives from Yangchun Village, Datian County in southeast China's Fujian Province, have signed an agreement with seven lawyers to bring the case to Dutch court.
The village has gone through official and private channels to negotiate with the Dutch collector for the return of the statue, which was worshipped as a god in the village temple for around 1,000 years, Lin Wenqing, Party chief of Yangchun village, said.
The collector first responded by saying he was willing to cede the relic "if it is proven to have belonged to a Buddhist community that still exists," but later changed positions and rejected negotiations.
The statue is of a Buddha named Zhanggong Zushi, a local man who became a monk in his 20s and won fame for helping people treat disease and spreading Buddhist belief.
When he died at the age of 37, his body was mummified and placed in the statue during China's Song Dynasty (960-1279). The statue was worshipped in the village temple ever since.
It was displayed at a "Mummy World" exhibition at the Hungarian Natural History Museum, which opened in October last year. It was originally scheduled to be on display until May 17, but was pulled from the exhibition following allegations it was stolen.
In the temple, local people still display the statue's hat and clothes left behind after it disappeared.
Leading the group of lawyers is Liu Yang, who earned a reputation for successfully leading a Chinese legal team in recovering relics looted from the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan), which was burned down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.
Liu said lawyers have finished collecting evidence on the case and will bring it to court by the end of this year.
He said he is optimistic as there are "no evident flaws or obstacles" in arguing the statue was stolen from the village temple. It is also important the court knows the village has a deep spiritual connection with the statue and a sense of urgency in reclaiming it.
The Dutch collector claims he obtained the item in 1996. According to Dutch law, the time frame for civil litigation is 20 years.
"The validity period for recovering the relic is going to expire next year. So we have pressure to complete the legal work quickly," Liu said.
He will fly to the Netherlands to work with a Dutch counterpart for the case in December.
Hundreds of residents from Datian County wrote a letter to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in March, pleading for return of the Buddha. The letter was handed to European-Chinese groups in the Netherlands, which delivered it via the Chinese embassy.
"We believe this is the Buddha we have been searching for over the past 20 years and we look forward to its return," the letter said in both Chinese and English.

http://www.globalpost.com/articl ... ctor-refuses-return

ezgw

Mummified Buddha's return still an arduous process

( chinadaily.com.cn ) Updated: 2015-11-13


A 1,000-year-old Buddha statue with a mummified monk inside, which is believed to have been stolen from Fujian's Yangchun village, faces huge obstacles in coming home.

In 1995, the statue of a seated Buddhist saint – Patriarch Zhanggong– was reported missing from Yangchun village in Southeast China's Fujian province. This March, the gold-lacquered statue was discovered on exhibit in a Hungarian museum, placed there by a Dutch art collector who claimed ownership.

The villagers immediately started seeking retrieval of the statue and set up a specialized committee for that purpose. The committee wrote several letters to the Dutch collector demanding the return of the statue. China's cultural relics authority also made efforts to contact and negotiate with the collector asking that the statue be returned soon.

The collector initially showed a willingness to return the relic to China, if it were proved to be stolen. However, the collector then asked $20 million for selling the statue, which he claimed was his cost of researching and keeping the relic.

As the negotiation proved to be ineffective, the villagers decided to use judicial means. A seven-member group of lawyers, one from Holland and six from China, volunteered to commence legal action, which will be heard in Amsterdam before the end of November.

According to the Dutch Civil Code, the possessor of another's object can obtain the ownership if the previous owner has not claimed the object back within 20 years, and the 20-year limitation period is about to expire.



Mummified Buddha's return still an arduous process

The Buddha statue is displayed at the Natural History Museum in Budapest, Hungary, March 4, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/f ... ontent_22452010.htm