COURT TRIAL ON GORYEO-ERA STATUE

[Anchor Lead]

There is a Goryeo-era Buddhist statue, which was looted and taken by Japanese pirates during the Joseon Dynasty period. In 2012, it was stolen by thieves in Japan and came back to Korea. A trial has continued for five years over the ownership of the historical relic The chief monk of a Japanese temple that had kept the statue attended a court hearing and demanded the return of the artifact.

[Pkg]

A gilt-bronze seated Buddhist statue with a gentle appearance. The statue was produced at Buseoksa Temple in Seosan, Chungchengnam-do Province in the 1330s during the last days of the Goryeo Kingdom. It is believed to have been looted and taken to Tsushima Island by Japanese invaders in 1526 during the Joseon Dynasty era. In 2012, a group of thieves stole the statue from Kannonji temple in the Japanese island. The artifact was discovered by Korean customs officials while the thieves attempted to bring it back to South Korea. Then a long-running legal battle began over the ownership of the statue. As part of an appeals trial between Buseoksa Temple and prosecutors, the chief monk of the Japanese temple attended a court hearing as a witness and claimed that the founder of his temple visited Joseon in 1526 and brought it to Japan. The Japanese monk also insisted that his temple has the ownership, as it made public its possession of the statue after it became a religious entity in 1953.

[Soundbite] Setsuryo Tanaka(Chief Monk of Kannonji Temple) : "I strongly insisted that the statue’s ownership belongs to us."

But at the first trial, the judges ruled in favor of the Korean temple, saying the statue must have been looted, as it has burn marks and inside it, there are no records about its move to Japan. The key point of the remaining trial is to identify if the relic was taken to Japan in a legitimate manner. Buseoksa temple plans to legally refute Japan’s claims.

[Soundbite] Won woo(Former Chief Monk of Buseoksa Temple) : "We heard the Japanese temple’s claims today. We will fully review them and make legal preparations."

Attention turns to what decision the court will deliver regarding the ownership of the statue that stands 50.5 centimeters tall and weighs 38.6 kilograms.