A court in South Korea ruled Thursday that a Buddhist temple located in the nation may keep [NYT report] a statue taken from Japan in 2012. The statue of Buddha was one of two artifacts stolen from a Japanese temple and taken to South Korea. The court found that the statue, created in the fourteenth century, had been originally been taken from South Korea by Japanese pirates hundreds of years before. The Japanese temple claimed the artifact could have been imported legally. However, a document found inside the statue and burn damage to the object’s exterior support claims that the statute was likely plundered.

Cultural artifacts are often the subject of extensive litigation. In December an Amsterdam court ruled [JURIST report] that Crimean artifacts are to be returned to Ukraine instead of Crimea. The artifacts, including gems, helmets and scabbards, were on loan to Amsterdam’s Allard Pierson Museum when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. In 2013 a French court allowed [JURIST report] the sale of 70 ancient Native American artifacts, primarily originating from Arizona’s Hopi Tribe, despite appeals for delay to better determine the legal status of the items.