Stolen Buddha statue returned to Japanese temple after 12 years
A Buddha statue stolen in 2012 and taken to South Korea was returned to a temple on Tsushima, an island in Nagasaki Prefecture, on Monday.
A ritual was held at Kannonji Temple to mark the return of the Kanzeon Bodhisattva statue after more than 12 years. It will be kept in a museum in Tsushima.
The statue was stolen by a South Korean criminal group in October 2012, and was later recovered by the country's investigative authorities. However, a South Korean temple claimed ownership of the seated statue, insisting that it had been looted by "wako" Japanese pirates in the 14th century.
In a lawsuit over the statue in South Korea, the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that the statue belonged to the Japanese temple.
The statue was handed over to the Japanese side in South Korea on Saturday and arrived in Tsushima in the early hours of Monday.
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