A private museum in Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture, has signed an accord to return to China an ancient Buddha statue that had been stolen from the country seven years earlier.
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| The Bodhisattva statue, stolen from a public building in Shandong Province in 1994 |
Miho Museum, established by the Shinji Shumeikai religious sect based in Shigaraki, said the agreement was reached after China acknowledged that the museum itself in no way acted improperly in the statue's purchase and exhibition.
The 120-cm standing bodhisattva -- made in China in the early part of the sixth century -- will be kept by the museum until 2007, when it will feature in a joint exhibition of Buddhist art before it is returned to China.
The statue was stolen from a garden at a public building in Shandong Province in 1994, the museum said.