The owner of a golden Buddha, which contains the mummified body of a monk, has told a court in the Netherlands that he no longer owns the statue and that he does not know the identity of its new owner.

A group of Chinese villagers have taken their claim for the return of the 1.2 metre high Buddha to court, arguing it was stolen from them 22 years ago.

But former owner Oscar van Overeem told judges on Wednesday that he has swapped the Buddha with another collector because he was ‘fed up’ with the legal wrangles surrounding it.

Questions about the 1,000 year old Buddha’s ownership arose when it became the star item in a show at the Hungarian natural history museum in Budapest in 2015. Pictures of the Buddha were shown on a Chinese news programme, leading villagers in Yangchun to claim it had been stolen from their temple in 1995.

The statue contains the mummified body of a monk, who the villagers claim is local man Zhanggong Zushi. But Van Overeem disputes their claim, saying the Buddha he owned did not have a hole on its left hand or signs of a break on the neck.

The new owner is Chinese and the swap was done without paperwork, Van Overeem told the court. ‘He did not want his name to become public knowledge,’ Van Overeem said.

The court will give its verdict on the case on December 12.