Chinese villagers filed an international lawsuit against a Dutch collector to get a sculpture they claim contains their ancestor Master Zhang, a Buddhist monk, returned to Yangchun village in Fujian Province after it was stolen over 20 years ago. After months of negotiations, the contentious case will finally begin next week.
Every year at the beginning of November, Yangchun and Dongpu villages in Sanming, East China's Fujian Province welcome a celebration that is only comparable in the local calendar to Chinese New Year.
"Every year on October 5 of the Lunar Calendar, the birthday of Master Zhang, people from all over the county come to pay their respects," Lin Wenqing, a local villager, told the Southern Metropolis Daily.
Master Zhang, or Zhanggong Zushi, is an ancestor of the village, according to Yangchun village's genealogical records. He was a well-respected Buddhist monk who achieved nirvana during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). After he passed away, his body was gilded and made into a statue. But it was stolen in 1995.
Twenty years later, a villager saw the body of Master Zhang on TV, at an international antique show, in the possession of a collector from the Netherlands. Since then, the villagers have gone on an international pursuit. The collector is due to answer their claims in court before next Wednesday.
Thank you for safekeeping
Lin Wenqing, 40, is the deputy director of Yangchun village's relic protection association. In his view, the Buddha sculpture is the glue that holds the village together.
When he was young, the elders in his family would often tell him to be gentle, to be kind and generous like Master Zhang. When two people started arguing, if one suggested they should take the argument in front of Master Zhang and ask him to be the judge, the other would start sweating if they knew they were in the wrong.
Every year, during the first month of the Lunar Calendar, there would be a Master Zhang village tour. In this ceremony, villagers hoisted up statue onto a platform and carried it around all the villages in the county.
Lin was a 19-year-old high school student when the master's statue was stolen, on a date all villagers remember, December 15, 1995.
"It felt like we were struck by lightning at that moment," Lin told the Southern Metropolis Daily. "The statue was so holy to us, who would dare to steal it?"
The day after the statue was stolen, the villagers started looking for it everywhere. They searched nearby temples, went to nearby Fuzhou and Xiamen's custom posts and kept an eye out, some people even went undercover to local relics black markets. But in 20 years, they never received an answer.
Last March, Lin Yongtuan, a villager, was watching the news and noticed that a statue on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Budapest, Hungary resembled Master Zhang. He immediately informed others, who asked their friends in Hungary to check out the statue.
From pictures sent by their scouts, villagers recognized distinctive cracks in the statue's left hand and chin, which led them to believe it was Master Zhang.
The Fujian provincial relic authorities also held investigations into this case after receiving reports from villagers. Experts compared photos of the statue on display to those provided by villagers, as well as family trees, clothing and the platform the statue was hoisted on, and declared that the statue was Master Zhang.
The Chinese national relics protection department also declared that the statue was a stolen relic from Yangchun.
The statue was removed from display in Budapest on March 24, 2015. At the time, the collector's spokesperson said the collector, Oscar van Overeem, had decided to remove the sculpture from display but didn't mention any controversy about ownership.
Later, van Overeem declared he has sufficient proof to show the statue did not come from Yangchun. One argument he made is that his statue was seen in Hong Kong at the end of 1994, while Master Zhang was stolen at the end of 1995.
Even though both sides have different arguments, Lin said villagers feel somewhat grateful to van Overeem.
"At least he kept Master Zhang safe for us for 20 years," he told the Southern Metropolis Daily.
