"The Tsushima Buddha statue will be handed over to Japan next week...The transfer is in May."

Japan's Kyodo News reported on the 24th that the ownership of the Gilt-bronze Gwaneum Bodhisattva statue of the Goryeo Dynasty, which was stolen from Tsushima Island in Japan and smuggled into Korea in 2012, is being carried out to Japan.

Kyodo News said officials from the temple on Tsushima Island, where the Buddha statue was stolen, will visit the Daejeon National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, where the statue is stored, to check the condition and take over ownership.

However, he added that the actual transfer to Japan is expected to take place around May as he has decided to lend the Buddha statue to Seosan Buseoksa Temple, which claimed ownership of the Buddha statue for a while.

BSSA claimed ownership based on the fact that the Buddha statue was a legacy of being looted by Japanese pirates in the past, but after seven years of litigation, our Supreme Court decided that the Buddha statue's ownership was in Japan in 2023.