China News Agency, Beijing, July 19 (Reporter Ying Ni) The Fujian Provincial Higher People's Court ruled on the 19th to uphold the first-instance judgment of the Fujian Sanming Intermediate People's Court that the Dutch collector should return the Buddha statue of Zhanggong Patriarch.

Huo Zhengxin, a professor of international law at China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out that this is the first time a Chinese court has exercised jurisdiction and made a judgment on cultural relics lost overseas, and it has high demonstration value.

　　The court of second instance held that the Zhanggong Patriarch Statue in dispute was a stolen cultural relic that was illegally exported. It has multiple attributes such as human remains, historical relics, and worship objects. It reflects the traditional customs and historical imprints in southern Fujian, and was worshipped by local villagers for a long time. The token has a special relationship with the local villagers, and it should be returned according to law, reason and emotion, so the above judgment is made.

　　Huo Zhengxin, a professor of international law at China University of Political Science and Law and an observer of the 1970 UNESCO Convention, told China News Agency that this is the first time a Chinese court has exercised jurisdiction and made a judgment on cultural relics lost overseas, and it has a high exemplary role in itself. .

　　He admitted that whether the judgment can be implemented in the future is the key and key.

Because according to the basic principles of international law, the judgment of a country's court has no extraterritorial effect in principle, and there is no treaty between China and the Netherlands for mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments. In addition, in 2018, the Dutch court rejected the plaintiff's claim in this case, so this is the case. As far as the case is concerned, if the defendant does not voluntarily perform, in fact, there is still a problem of cross-border enforcement of judgments.

　　But further, Huo Zhengxin pointed out that in addition to the demonstration value of the Fujian Provincial High Court's judgment, it also declared to the world the ownership of this body seated Buddha.

According to the return judgment of the Chinese court, when Dutch collectors change hands or want to deal with the cultural relics through the cultural relics trading market, it will be more difficult, because potential buyers will have great concerns, so this judgment is a follow-up realization of the real cultural relics. Backtracking, creating a nice condition.

　　The "Seated Buddha Statue of Patriarch Zhanggong" was originally enshrined in Puzhaotang, Yangchun Village, Wushan Township, Datian County, Sanming City, Fujian Province.

On December 14, 1995, the Buddha statue was stolen.

The Dutch collectors claimed to have bought and obtained the Buddha statues involved in the case in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1996, but did not provide the corresponding transaction certificates for the source of the Buddha statues.

In March 2015, nearly 20 years after it was stolen, the Buddha statue was publicly exhibited at the Hungarian Museum of Natural Sciences with the permission of the collector.

　　At the end of 2015 and in November 2016, the village committees of Yangchun Village and Dongpu Village successively filed recourse lawsuits in Fujian Province, China and the Netherlands.

　　In December 2018, the Amsterdam District Court in the Netherlands dismissed the Fujian villagers’ lawsuit on the grounds of “subject of litigation qualifications”.

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