South Korea court rejects temple's claim to looted statue

The ruling effectively ends the protracted legal dispute over this roughly 50cm statue of a sitting Buddhist Bodhisattva.

SEOUL (AFP): South Korea's Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a Buddhist temple's claim to a 700-year-old statue purportedly looted from its premises by Japanese pirates in the 14th century, paving the way for the artefact's return to Japan.

The ruling effectively ends the protracted legal dispute over the roughly 50-centimetre (20-inch) statue of a sitting Buddhist Bodhisattva, which was stolen from a Japanese temple by South Korean thieves in 2012.