The Dutch owner of a 1,000-year-old Buddha statue containing a mummified monk has said he will return the artifact to China within a month.

Architect Oscar van Overeem said the statue will be enshrined in a temple near Yangchun in Fujian province. He bought the relic for 40,000 Dutch guilders ($20,500) in 1996 from a collector in Amsterdam who had acquired it in Hong Kong.

Residents in Yangchun say the statue may be the one that was stolen from the village in 1995, though van Overeem said he has proof that it did not come from there.