Austria returns ancient Buddha mask

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Austria returned to Nepal a 400-year-old mask of Buddha that had been missing for two years, the BBC reported Friday.

Made of bronze and copper, the mask disappeared from an office just south of Nepal's capital and was recently located after a German tried to sell the mask to an Austrian ethnography museum for $200,000.

Museum officials then checked with Austrian and Nepalese Buddhism experts, and photographs and police reports helped confirm the identity of the stolen object.

The three-foot tall Dipankar Buddha mask is still used for rituals in Nepals' Newar community of the Lalitpur district.