Two stolen Buddha statues were returned to Laos authorities following lengthy negotiations with their Austrian owner, a news report said on May 14.
Reinhold Mittersakschmoller handed the wooden statues over the Laos Embassy in Vienna in a ceremony on May 12, eight years after he bought them in Thailand, the Vientiane Times reported.
Reinhold said he later came to suspect the 40 centermeter-high figures were from the Ting cave in Luang Prabang province, one of Laso' biggest tourist destinations. The cave is a Buddhist site and place of pilgrimage with thousands of such objects.