The statue, about 1.2 meters tall, began touring from the Drents Museum in the Netherlands in February and is now on display at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest.
It is expected to go to Luxembourg for an exhibition in May.
A medical scan had found that a gold-painted statue of a sitting Buddha hides mummified remains of a high-status monk who lived nearly 1,000 years ago.
Researchers also found scraps of paper written in Chinese inside the abdominal cavity of the body through endoscopy.
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To back their claims villagers said the statue on exhibition in Europe is very similar in appearance to the photo of the village's statue of Master Zhanggong Liuquan that was stolen in 1995.
It may have been smuggled from the country and was bought and sold in the Netherlands. In 1996, a private owner decided to have someone fix the chips and cracks that marred the gold-painted exterior.
The Fujian cultural relics authorities have sent archaeological experts to the village to collect materials to further validate the villagers' claim.
"We will consider using legal ways to retrieve the Buddhist statue if evidence shows it was stolen from the village," Wang Yongping, an official with the local antique connoisseur authorities was quoted as saying to the Daily.
Prominent Buddhist monks usually practiced self-mummification when they feel they are about to die.
After a monk dies, he is buried sitting in the lotus position in a clay vessel. The preserved body is decorated with paint and adorned with gold.