Seven historic Buddha statues that had been stolen and put on display overseas were on show at a museum in Henan province last week.

The seven statues, from the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 386-534) and Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), were stolen from the Longmen Grottoes and sold overseas early last century, according to People's Daily.

In 2004, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage bought the statues from Chen Zhejing, an American-born Chinese, and a US collector after identification of the statues.

The statues were put on display at the Luoyang Longmen Museum on April 27, and they will be on show for the coming weeks.