Relic experts in Fujian province presented evidence suggesting that a 1,000-year-old Buddha statue containing a mummified monk, which had been on display at an exhibition in Hungary, may have been stolen from a village temple in the province.

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage has accepted the villagers' application asking for retrieval of the statue and launched due procedures, local authorities said on Monday.

The statue, featured in the MummyWorld Exhibition at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest, "had been removed and sent back to the Netherlands due to the request of the loaning partner, the Drents Museum", the museum's website said.