(eng): An efficient estimator for the expectation R f dP is constructed, where P is a Gibbs random field, and f is a local statistic, i. e. a functional depending on a finite number of coordinates. The estimator coincides with the empirical estimator under the conditions stated in Greenwood and Wefelmeyer [6], and covers the known special cases, namely the von Mises statistic for the i.i.d. underlying fields and the case of one-dimensional Markov chains.