Odd journey of Tram Gian pagoda’s treasures

18 years after they were stolen and sold abroad, four wood paintings in the set of ancient paintings entitled “Ten Kings of the Underworld” have returned to their home, Tram Gian pagoda in Hanoi.
Hanoian police returned the paintings to the pagoda’s managing monk, Thich Dam Quang, in early 2010.
“Since we received the paintings, I must always keep an eye on these treasures. I’m worried that thieves will steal them again,” explained Quang. The four paintings are hung where the pagoda’s monks can see them all the time.
The four paintings are made of jackfruit wood and they look shiny black after nearly a thousand years. There are hundreds of sets of paintings about the ten kings of the underworld in Vietnam, but the set at Tram Gian pagoda was the rarest and most valuable. The paintings describe underworld kings sitting between two devils to question guilty persons and impose penalties on guilty people.
Quang remarked that these paintings are as old as the pagoda. Four paintings were stolen 18 years ago, when all the monks went to another pagoda to attend a Buddhism class. Over one year later, four more paintings were stolen, leaving only two paintings.
Police and pagoda officials sought information and, several years ago, heard that the paintings were in China. “We had lost hope, when we suddenly received them back,” the monk revealed.
It was a long and hard process to locate these paintings. Hanoi police kept track of a transnational antique smuggling ring for several years until they caught a man in the act of transporting several antiques, including these four paintings, to Noi Bai International Airport in May 2009. These antiques were all stolen from Pho Minh pagoda in Nam Dinh province and Tram Gian pagoda and had been sold to a foreigner.
Hanoi antique collectors said that each painting is priced at least $100,000.