ART CRIMES
War Relic's Sale Raised
Red Flag
01/30/07
|
|
| The
6-foot-by-6 -foot flag of the 25th Indiana
Volunteer Regiment was returned Monday
to the Indiana War Memorial Museum in
Indianapolis. |
A
Civil War battle flag that accompanied a regiment
of Indiana Union soldiers at the battles of
Shiloh and Vicksburg and on Sherman's March
to the Sea was returned to its rightful owners
Monday, more than a decade after it mysteriously
disappeared from the Indiana War Memorial
Museum.
The
6-foot-by-6½-foot flag of the 25th
Indiana Volunteer Regiment went missing from
the museum's inventory in the mid 90s. Early
last year during a business liquidation, an
antiquities expert spotted the regimental
flag and contacted the museum, which is home
to hundreds of historic flags.
"He
brought this to the attention of the museum,
which then approached the FBI," said
Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, manager of the FBI's
Art Theft Program.
The
Art
Crime Team, which includes 12 specially
trained FBI agents and three Department of
Justice trial attorneys, was notified in September
that the flag—estimated to be worth $50,000—was
part of a liquidation sale. The team arranged
the flag's return to the museum, citing, for
example, federal laws .that establish that
flags such as this are property of the United
States Government.
Here's
a little background: During the Civil War
years, state infantry regiments each had their
own flag. As the state regiments entered the
Civil War, they became Union troops—the
U.S. Army. When the fighting ended, the regiments
disbanded, and their flags—still technically
federal property—were entrusted to the
individual states.
"We
helped negotiate the return of the flag from
the people who possessed the flag to its rightful
custodian – the State of Indiana,"
Magness-Gardiner said.
Keith
Lourdeau, special agent in charge of the FBI's
field office, officially returned the flag
to the Indiana War Memorial Museum during
a ceremony Monday.
Since
the inception of the Art Crime Team in 2004.
it has helped locate more than 850 items worth
over $65 million, including:
