Fact Sheets

Cultural Heritage Investigations and Repatriations

Investigating the loss or looting of cultural heritage properties and returning them to their countries of origin are an important part of ICE's diverse mission. ICE, as a legacy of the U.S. Customs Service, has authorities that target a wide range of criminal activities, many of them involving smuggling and trafficking, both of goods and people. The agency often investigates leads to art and artifacts that are important evidence of another nation's history and cultural heritage. ICE takes pride in bringing to justice those who would trade in such items for personal profit and in returning to other nations these priceless items.

The theft and trafficking of cultural items is a practice that is older than history. What is new about it is how easy it is for cultural pirates to acquire valuable antiquities, artworks and artifacts, fossils, coins or textiles and move them around the globe, swiftly, easily and inexpensively without regard to laws, borders, nationalities or their value to a nation’s heritage.

Fortunately, ICE agents are better prepared than ever to combat these crimes. Our specially trained investigators and attachés in more than 40 countries not only partner with governments, agencies and experts who share our mission to protect these items, but they train the investigators of other nations and agencies on how to find, authenticate and enforce the law to recover these items when they emerge in the marketplace.

Customs laws allow ICE to seize national treasures, especially if they have been reported lost or stolen. ICE works with experts to authenticate the items, determine their true ownership and return them to their countries of origin.

ICE cultural heritage repatriations

334 pre-Columbian artifacts returned to Peru

On Feb. 11, 2009, ICE and CBP in Laredo, Texas, returned to the Peruvian government 334 pre-Columbian artifacts that were seized in 2007 following an investigation. ICE’s national Cyber Crimes Center had detected the sale of the items online by Jorge Ernesto Lanas-Ugaz in Texas. ICE, CBP and Laredo Police Department officers executed a federal search warrant at Lanas-Ugaz's home in Laredo, where they discovered many additional authentic artifacts, including textiles, ceramic figures, wood sculptures, and metal and stone art. Lanas-Ugaz pleaded guilty to one count of fraudulently importing merchandise and receiving stolen goods. On Sept. 13, 2007, he was sentenced to three years probation and a $2,000 fine.

Historic vehicle returned to France

In February 2009, it was determined that a rare roadster owned by a Seattle antique car collector will be returned to France, after an ICE investigation revealed it had been illegally removed from France. The 1919 Turcat-Mery, estimated to be worth $1 million, had been owned by the Duc de Montpensier, last descendant of the “Orleans” branch of the Bourbon Dynasty, which reigned in France for nearly 250 years. In 1991, the French government classified his estate a French national treasure containing “goods of public historic interest.” This designation prevented any part of the estate from being permanently exported from France. Nevertheless, in 2004, the car was sold to Charles Morse, who had it flown to the Seattle area and who undervalued the vehicle by approximately $600,000 on customs forms. In December 2008, the U.S. government filed a civil forfeiture complaint for the vehicle. As part of the settlement of the case, Morse will return the Turcat-Mery to France and inform any potential buyer of its designation.

Stolen artifacts returned to a Cairo museum

In Dec. 3, 2008, ICE returned 79 ancient artifacts to the Government of Egypt at a ceremony in New York. The items, which had been seized in a 2006 investigation, were among 370 pre-dynastic artifacts discovered missing from the Ma'adi museum in Cairo during the summer of 2002. In October 2006, ICE received a tip from the Art Loss Register, a London-based company with offices in New York, about the sale of the Ma'adi artifacts to a U.S. antiquities dealer. Investigation revealed that Edward George Johnson, an active duty Chief Warrant officer in the U.S. Army who had been assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo in 2002 had used his diplomatic status to illegally ship the Ma'adi artifacts he had acquired in Egypt to the U.S., in violation of Egypt's export laws, diplomatic protocol as outlined in the Vienna Convention, and U.S. law for smuggling the artifacts into the country. He then sold them to a dealer claiming that they were family property dating back to the early 20th century. An expert on the Ma'adi excavations later recognized the items were from an excavation. In July 2008, Johnson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possession and selling of stolen antiquities. He was sentenced in September 2008 to 18 months probation and was ordered to make restitution to the antiquities dealer to whom he sold the artifacts.

‘Hitler’ bookmark recovered in Washington state

On Nov. 26, 2008, an 18-carat gold bookmark that reportedly belonged to Adolf Hitler was recovered by ICE agents in Washington state. The historical artifact, which is believed to have been given to Hitler by Eva Barun, was set to be auctioned in October 2002, by an auction house in Madrid, Spain, when it was stolen by three eastern European thieves, along with several pieces of jewelry. The bookmark is believed to have belonged to the family of Wilhelm Keitel, an armed forces chief under Hitler who was executed following the Nuremberg trials. While most of the other items stolen in the robbery have been recovered, this was the first time that the bookmark had surfaced Christian Popescu, 37, of Kenmore, Wash., was arrested. A conviction for sale or receipt of stolen goods is punishable by up to ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Hermitage artwork catalog, stolen by Nazis, returned to Russia

On Oct. 22, 2008, ICE recovered a rare Russian book titled, “Catalog of the Art Gallery of the Emperor's Hermitage”, was recently returned to Russian authorities. The art recorded in the catalog was assembled over more than a century, beginning in the 1700s, as the private collection of Catherine the Great. The catalog, which listed the holdings of the collection, itself dates to 1889. Nazi soldiers stole the catalog from Catherine's Gatchina Palace outside St. Petersburg during World War II. It was recovered in Chicago, after being offered for sale on the Internet. Cultural artifacts, such as the catalog, illegally brought into the United States are subject to seizure under the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act.

Stolen paintings by Monet, Sisley and Brueghel seized in multi-agency investigation

On Sept. 24, 2008, ICE and FBI agents, working with the national police of France and Spain, seized paintings from a French citizen who was looking to profit from stolen paintings. Armed robbers in Nice, France, had stolen the four paintings: “Cliffs Near Dieppe,” by Claude Monet; “The Lane of Poplars at Moret,” by Alfred Sisley; “Allegory of Water” and “Allegory of Earth,” both by Jan Breughel the Elder, in 2007. The French citizen was  sentenced in Miami in 2008 to 62 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and an order of restitution for conspiring to transport four stolen paintings and visa fraud.   

More than 1,000 artifacts, from four investigations, returned to Iraq

In one of the largest repatriations to date, on Sept. 15, 2008, ICE returned 1,044 cultural antiquities to the Government of Iraq that were seized in four separate investigations dating to 2001. The items, which included terra cotta cones inscribed in Cuneiform text, a praying goddess figurine that was once imbedded in a Sumerian temple and coins bearing the likenesses of ancient emperors, are an illustration of the long and varied history of the country now known as Iraq. Remnants of ancient Cuneiform tablets, which were seized by the Customs Service in 2001, were recovered from beneath the ruins of the World Trade Center in 2001 and will be restored in Iraq. The objects were turned over in a ceremony at the Embassy of Iraq, where Iraqi Ambassador Samir Shakir al-Sumaydi accepted on behalf of his government.

More than 60 pre-Columbian artifacts returned to Colombia

On July 8, 2008, in a Miami ceremony, ICE returned to the Colombian  60 artifacts that were seized in a joint 2005 investigation with the Broward County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office. The artifacts, which included ancient pottery, gold pieces and emeralds, some as old as 500 B.C., were stolen from Colombia and smuggled into the United States. The artifacts’ ages and authenticity were confirmed by University of Florida’s Dr. Carol Damian. ICE agents arrested and charged a 66-year-old Italian national, Ugo Bagnato, with sale and receipt of stolen goods. He was convicted and served 17 months in federal prison, after which he was deported.

“Bactrian Bronze Age” tomb items turned over to Afghan museum director

In a special program at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., May 22, 2008, ICE officials turned over to the Afghan national museum director, Omara Masoudi, eight items that had been illegally removed from Afghanistan and smuggled into the United States. The items, including the metal remnants of a spear, two axes, a dagger and knife blades, were authenticated by Dr. Paul Jett, lead scientist and conservator at the Smithsonian Institute, as dating to 2000 B.C., a period in Afghanistan known as the Bactrian Bronze Age. They were probably from excavations at burial sites in northern Afghanistan. The objects were the subject of a “Dateline NBC” 2005 undercover operation for the television show. “Dateline” turned them over to ICE. Unfortunately, at the time, Afghan cultural artifacts were not protected by the 1970 UNESCO Convention on Cultural Property Protection. The country signed the pact in 2007, allowing the repatriation to take place.

Huge cache of smuggled rare fossils sent back to Argentina

On May 10, 2008, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for ICE Julie L. Myers, returned more than 8,100 pounds of rare fossils to Argentina. Dr. Jose Nun, Minister of Culture, and Dr. Leonardo Salgado of the Museum of Geological and Paleontological Artifacts accepted the antiquities on behalf of the Argentine people. The  rare prehistoric fossils had been illegally removed from Argentina and brought into the United States. The cache, including prehistoric pine cones and dinosaur eggs, was seized two years earlier by ICE agents at a gem and mineral show in Tucson, Ariz. The fossils' return sends an important message about ongoing international efforts to combat the trafficking of cultural artifacts and prehistoric specimens.

U.S. arrests, convicts U.S. Army pilot for dealing in stolen Egyptian antiquities

On Feb. 6, 2008, ICE announced the arrest of Edward George Johnson, an active U.S. Army helicopter pilot, on charges relating to his sale of stolen Egyptian antiquities. In late September 2002, approximately 370 pre-dynastic artifacts were stolen from the Ma'adi Museum near Cairo, Egypt. The artifacts, dating to 3000 B.C. and earlier, were originally discovered during an excavation in Egypt in the 1920s and 1930s. Johnson was charged with one count of transportation of stolen property and one count of wire fraud. He pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property and was sentenced in September 2008 to 18 months probation and was ordered to make restitution to the antiquities dealer to whom he sold the artifacts.  

Pre-Columbian grinding tools seized at border, returned to Mexico

On Jan. 25, 2008, ICE returned three pre-Columbian grinding tools to Mexico that an Arizona man attempted to bring into the United States illegally the year before. In a brief ceremony at the port of entry in Naco, Ariz., the manos and metates were returned to Elisa Villapando, an archaeology professor at the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Hermosillo, Sonora. The artifacts were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Naco port of entry in June 2007. ICE agents took the artifacts to the University of Arizona for evaluation, where they were determined to have significant cultural value. No charges were brought against the Arizona man after he surrendered the items so they could be returned to Mexico.

Ancient marble sculpture of Roman emperor restored to Algerian Government

On Jan. 15, 2008, ICE returned an ancient marble sculpture of the head of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius to Algerian Ambassador Amine Kherbi in a ceremony in Washington, D.C. The 200-pound statuette had been stolen along with eight others in the 1996 robbery of an Algerian museum in the seaside town of Skikda. ICE seized it from Christie's auction house in New York, where it had been featured for sale on the cover of its catalogue. Dating from the second century, the 3-foot-high marble likeness of Marcus Aurelius was created when what is now Algeria was part of the Roman Empire. The piece was spotted by INTERPOL as it emerged in the international market of cultural antiquities. INTERPOL alerted ICE that it might be a stolen artifact. ICE experts worked with Algerian scholars to verify the statue's identity and then notified the U.S. auction house that the piece was subject to seizure. The seizure was not contested.

U.S. repatriates pre-Columbian Mayan artifact to Guatemalan Government

On Oct. 1, 2007, a pre-Columbian Mayan artifact at least 1,200 years old was returned to the Guatemalan Government at a ceremony in Chicago, after it was seized the previous year from a traveler by federal agents at O'Hare International Airport. This repatriation resulted from a joint investigation between ICE and CBP. On March 27, 2006, the traveler claimed the artifact had been given to him as a gift by a Guatemalan family in exchange for volunteer work he had performed for them. Although the traveler was not criminally charged, the artifact was seized for being illegally brought into the United States, which violates the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act.

Stolen antique vessel turned over to Egyptian representatives in New York

On Aug. 9, 2007, ICE officials returned an antique vessel in the form of an alabaster duck to the Egyptian  at its consular offices in Manhattan. The vessel, which is over 4,500 years old, had been stolen from the Egyptian Antiquities Inspectorate in 1979. In 2006, the antiquity was to be  offered for sale at Christie's auction house in New York City, which  advised ICE officials of the auction. When ICE confirmed that the antiquity had been stolen, Christie's withdrew the object from the sale and surrendered it to ICE. The sale price of the object was estimated at $20,000 to $30,000.

Peruvian Government accepts more than 400 recovered pre-Columbian artifacts

On June 13, 2007, ICE officials returned 412 pre-Columbian artifacts to the Peruvian Government  that were seized in Florida in 2005 following a joint investigation between ICE and the Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO). ICE agents and BSO officers discovered the artifacts during the execution of three federal search warrants at various South Florida locations. The artifacts, which include ancient pottery, burial shrouds and gold jewelry, were stolen from Peru and illegally smuggled into the United States. This is believed to be one of the largest seizures of pre-Columbian artifacts smuggled into the United States. ICE agents arrested and charged 66-year-old Italian national Ugo Bagnato with the receipt and sale of stolen goods. Bagnato was found guilty and served 17 months in federal prison, which made him subject to removal from the United States.

Stone idol discovered in New York returned to Indian Government

On April 17, 2006, ICE returned a stolen 250-pound, 9th-century stone idol to the Indian after investigators in New York seized it in the course of investigating leads from ITERPOL and Indian police. ICE agents in New York City launched an investigation in 2003 that led to Namkha Dorjee, owner of the Bodhi Citta Gallery operating out of a Manhattan apartment. The gallery owner voluntarily surrendered the idol to ICE.

Ancient coins seized and returned to Saudi Ambassador

On March 6, 2006, ICE returned to the Saudi Government 132 pounds of ancient coins that had been  illegally removed from a sunken shipwreck in the Red Sea. ICE agents in Miami followed a tip that led them to a Key West man who admitted to taking the coins while on a recreational dive in Saudi Arabia in 1994. An INTERPOL alert posted by Saudi law enforcement provided additional information on the coins. Records show that the diver communicated in Internet chat rooms that focused on Islamic coins to learn how to restore the coins and to solicit possible buyers. Agents, acting in an undercover capacity, engaged the suspect via email, eventually confronting him in person with the facts of the case. The subject surrendered the coins to agents on April 7, 2005, and the coins were administratively forfeited on July 9, 2005.

Vase seized from Getty museum returned to Italy

On Nov. 10, 2005, a 2,300-year-old vase that was allegedly smuggled out of Italy and ended up in Los Angeles in the Getty Museum’s antiquities collection arrived in Rome, capping a joint effort by Italian authorities, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and ICE to return the artifact to its home. The rare, hand-painted, “Calyx krater,” considered one of the best works by renowned Italian vase painter Asteas, has an appraised value of approximately $350,000. According to the forfeiture complaint filed in the case, the vase was unearthed by a laborer doing maintenance work on Italy’s canals during the 1970s. After an initial request in 1999 to have the krater returned under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, the Italians intensified their efforts to secure the vase’s return in early 2005, maintaining that the artifact was a crucial piece of evidence in the trial of two Americans charged with antiquities trafficking.

Stolen colonial altarpiece located in New Mexico and returned to Peru

On July 26, 2005, Eduardo Ferraro, Peru’s ambassador to the United States, announced the return by ICE of El Altar de Challapampa (The Altar of Challapampa) to Peru. In January 2002, the altarpiece was reported stolen from its temporary location near Lake Titicaca at Challapampa, Peru. In May 2003, the ICE New York field office launched an investigation and discovered the artifact in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at Ron Messick Fine Arts and Antiquities. ICE worked closely with INTERPOL and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to seek criminal prosecution of Messick, who died in the course of the investigation. The executors of his estate voluntarily surrendered the artifact to ICE. The altarpiece, weighing more than 800 pounds and standing 12 feet tall, features a polychrome wooden carving of the angels Michael and Gabriel beneath a crucifix.

Two rare 2,000-year-old coins handed over to president of Afghanistan

On May 23, 2005, in a ceremony at the Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., ICE  returned to President Hamid Karzai two rare coins estimated to be more than 2,000 years old. They were believed to have been looted during unrest in Afghanistan following the departure of Russian forces in 1988. The coins were originally discovered during a 1971 French-led archeological excavation at Ai Khanoum (on the Oxus River in the Northeastern portion of Afghanistan). These Indo-Greek coins of Agathokles, dating between 171 and 160 B.C., were created following the reign of Alexander the Great. After Russian forces left Afghanistan, the two coins were among many artifacts stolen from the Afghan National Museum. In December 2003, the ICE’s Baltimore field office recovered the coins from a Maryland coin dealer. The coins were estimated to be worth $1,000 dollars each.

ICE and Thai Police arrest smuggler selling dinosaur fossils over the Internet

On Feb. 25, 2005, ICE and the Royal Thai Police (RTP) announced the culmination of an eight-month investigation into the illegal possession, sale and exportation of more than 1,300 pounds of priceless fossils and Thai and Khmer cultural antiquities. The ICE Attaché in Bangkok received information that a Thai national identified as Piriya Vachajitpan was selling Thai and Cambodian antiquities via on-line auction and illegally shipping the artifacts to the United States. ICE agents, working closely with the RTP, maintained undercover contact with Vachajitpan and discussed the purchase of indigenous fossils from Thailand, as well as Buddha images from both Thailand and Cambodia. Following examination of the fossils, the RTP placed Vachajitpan under arrest for attempting to sell and export Thai artifacts in violation of Thai law. Based on an authentication of the fossils, the RTP executed a search warrant at Vachajitpan’s residence and seized approximately 500-600 kilograms (1,100-1,320 lbs.) of fossils.

16th-century Mexican altarpiece stolen from convent returned to Mexico

In April 2004, ICE agents seized a stolen, 500-year-old Judeo-Christian altarpiece that was being offered for sale at $225,000 in an art consignment shop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The ICE investigation determined that the altarpiece had been stolen in April 2001 from a convent in Puebla, Mexico. It was returned to Mexico.

Multi-state investigations seize ancient Peruvian artifacts

In April 2004, ICE returned a variety of recovered artifacts to the  Government of Peru. The artifacts were seized in three separate ICE investigations into antiquities smugglers and dealers in several states after being smuggled from protected archeological sites in Peru by individuals who sought them for their personal collections or who intended to sell them for profit. Dating from 100 A.D. to 1,530 A.D., the items came from Mochica, Chimu and Chancay cultures. They included a rare mother-of-pearl knife, gold ornaments, nose jewelry, copper pins, pottery and textile fragments.

1898 Borchardt Luger pistol, stolen from museum, returned to Switzerland

In February 2004, ICE returned to Switzerland the oldest surviving example of a prototype self-loading 1898 Borchardt Luger pistol. The pistol was stolen in 1996 from Switzerland’s former Waffenfabrik museum. After months of investigation, ICE agents in Texas seized the rare pistol from an internationally known antique firearms collector. A British auction house later determined that the 106-year-old pistol, worth approximately $720,000, had been stolen from the Swiss. A former curator of the Waffenfabrik museum and his son were prosecuted in the theft in Switzerland.

14th-century manuscript restored to Vienna Jewish Community

In November 2003, ICE returned a 14th-century Hebrew manuscript, stolen by the Nazis during World War II, to the Jewish Community Organization of Vienna, Austria. The manuscript is one of the oldest versions of the Kabalistic text known as “Sepher Yetzirah” and is valued at approximately $68,000. The ICE investigation began in March 2002, when a newspaper article reported that the manuscript was to be sold at a New York auction house. The probe revealed that Aaron Stefansky, a U.S. citizen, had smuggled the manuscript into the United States after purchasing it from an antiquities dealer in Israel. On June 10, 2002, ICE agents seized the manuscript after determining that it had been stolen from the Jewish library in Vienna. In March 2003, Stefansky was arrested and pleaded guilty to his role in smuggling the manuscript for commercial purposes. Stefansky was later sentenced to probation and fined in the Southern District of New York.

1,400-year-old Mayan artifacts repatriated to Honduras

In September 2003, ICE returned 279 smuggled pre-Columbian artifacts to the Government of Honduras. The Pre-Colombian artifacts, which included ornate figurines, bowls, and pottery made by the Mayan culture in Honduras between approximately 600 and 900 A.D., had been purchased in Honduras and illegally smuggled into the United States in 1998. Douglas Hall, 45, of Ohio, and Tulio Monterroso-Bonilla, 39, of Guatemala, traveled to Honduras, where they purchased the artifacts for $11,000, according to a federal indictment. The items were then shipped through Miami and falsely declared as having a value of $37. They were later offered for sale at a shop in Ohio. ICE investigators discovered that the articles had been smuggled, and in June 2002, a federal grand jury in Ohio indicted Hall and Monterroso-Bonilla in connection with the smuggling effort. Hall was convicted in October 2002, sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined. Monterroso-Bonilla pleaded guilty in August 2002 to transporting smuggled artifacts.

Ancient alabaster stele goes home to Yemen after criminal investigation

An ICE investigation of Phoenix Ancient Art and owners, Hicham and Ali Aboutaam, found that they were allegedly trafficking in illegally obtained art and antiquities, both violations of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Property and the Cultural Property Implementation Act. The Aboutaam brothers, Lebanese nationals with Canadian citizenship, are major suppliers of museum- quality antiquities from their galleries in New York, Switzerland and Lebanon. In May 2003, Aboutaam’s attempted to sell, via Sotheby’s auction house a piece known as the South Arabian Alabaster Stele for approximately $20,000 to $30,000. Sotheby’s authenticated the stele but declined to auction this artifact. ICE’s attaché in Rome assisted and obtained proof from Yemen authorities that the stele was stolen. It was forfeited to the U.S. government in December 2003 and eventually returned to Yemen.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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