Dutch collector says to return 'mummy buddha' if it belongs to Chinese village

A Chinese Buddha statue with the mummified body of a Buddhist monk inside is on display at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest, Hungary on March 3, 2015. According to the Chinese characters written on the pilow of the statue, the body inside the statue belonged to Chinese Buddhist monk Zhang Liuquan who lived around A.D. 1100. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)

The Dutch private collector who has the "mummy Buddha" statue in possession said he is willing to give it back to the Chinese village if it is proved to be stolen from there.

Quoted by Dutch daily NRC, the collector, an architect in Amsterdam who insists on his anonymity, said if it is proven that the statue belongs to "for example a Buddhist community that still exists", he is willing to cede it, as long as it does not enter a state museum.

The collector, who first spoke as "a friend of the owner" but recognized later that he is the owner himself, told NRC that a few of the historical pictures in the Chinese media indeed looked quite like 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 a proof. Also, from the research of the recent years, it shows that the mummy belongs to a temple much bigger and more important than the local temple in Yangchun," said the collector.

The 1000-year-old Buddha statue, with a mummy monk inside, was in exhibition from January to August last year in Drents Museum of Holland before travelling to Budapest in October for an exhibition at the Hungarian Natural History Museum scheduled to last till May.

Villagers in Yangchun, in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian, saw reports about the exhibition on Chinese TV news and believed that the statue was the one stolen from their village temple in 1995.

An official with China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) said Tuesday in a statement that based on photos, local archives and witness statements, SACH can confirm that this Buddha statue was stolen from a temple in Yangchun village of Fujian province in 1995.

Dr. Vincent van Vilsteren, curator of the Drents Museum, told Xinhua that the statue was under control of the museum until last Friday because they had a legal loan contract with the owner.

"Now the owner has retreated it from Budapest, it is in Amsterdam now. It is not under control of the Drents Museum any more. It is under control of the owner again," he said.

On March 20, the collector pulled back the mummy from the exhibition "out of fear that it would be seized," the NRC reported, citing the collector.

The collector said he does not want to become a part of the international commotion which is emerging, the NRC reported. He said the research is still going on and finishing it is of great importance.

The owner has invested a lot in the research of the statue and needs money to find out where it really came from, and the result of the DNA test, which should come out soon, could help with that, according to the NRC report.

The owner said he had spent 40,000 guilders (Dutch currency until 2002 when it was replaced by the euro, about 19,746.7 U.S dollars) to acquire the statue. "It is not about money," he said. He also said he had declined a bid of 10 million euros (about 10.9 million dollars).

Vilsteren told Xinhua that both the Museum and the collector noticed that Chinese villagers and Chinese authorities are doing investigations and want to get the statue back. And he could transfer messages from the Chinese side to the owner.

He added that the statue is in perfect condition and there is no need to worry that any damage could be done 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 twenty years ago. We have built a superb crate in which it is transported," he said.