South Korea’s top court rules Japanese temple is rightful owner of stolen 700-year-old Buddha statue

South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a Buddha statue stolen from a Japanese temple in 2012 comes from the temple, declining a South Korean temple’s insurance claim to possession of it.

The choice over the 14th-century statue adhered to a comparable judgment by the Daejeon High Court inFebruary The statue was stolen by South Korean burglars and recouped by South Korean authorities in 2013.

The judgment successfully finishes the lengthy lawful conflict over the approximately 50-centimetre (20-inch) statue of a resting Buddhist Bodhisattva.

The burglars were captured attempting to market it after returning home and the statue entered South Korean federal government wardship, yet the Buseok temple– regarding 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Seoul– submitted a legal action in 2016 insisting possession and requiring it be returned.

The top court’s judgment comes with a time when Japan-South Korea connections have actually been …