Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

HSI repatriated 11 artifacts to the government of Peru during a ceremony held at the Embassy of Peru in Washington D.C. May 30.

The repatriation included myriad artifacts, such as ancient books and manuscripts, coins, paintings, statues and sculptures, an ammonite fossil and a Greco-Roman bronze helmet.

According to court documents, Vint Wade, 65, and Donna Wade, 67, of Moab, Utah; Steven Willing, 67, of Los Angeles, California; and Jordan Willing, 40 of Ashland, Oregon, committed several felony offenses against the United States by violating the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act.

Experts at the University of California, Los Angeles determined the item to be an ancient ceremonial drinking vessel originating in Argentina. A pre-Columbian art expert revealed the artifact was a genuine antiquity and dated it to be between 1,000 and 2,000 years old. The piece belongs to the Condorhuasi-Alamito or Aguada cultures in present-day northwest Argentina.

The antiquities were stolen in 2008 from a private collection and museum in Cuatro Cienegas, Coahuila, Mexico.

The fossils were recovered through HSI investigations conducted by our offices in Arizona, New York, and Wyoming, and the collection was represented by a tyrannosaurus bataar skull, protoceratops fossil, alioramus skull, and saurolophus skull.

ICE Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Patrick J. Lechleitner traveled to Rome to repatriate an original edition of a stolen 15th century Columbus letter to Italian officials on July 19. HSI had collaborated with international partners and subject matter experts since September 2011 on this multifaceted international investigation.

HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Ivan J. Arvelo and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams announced June 22 that the United States filed and settled a civil forfeiture action against $12 million derived from the sale of stolen Southeast Asian antiquities by indicted antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford. 

This return of these ancient coins was made possible by the investigative efforts of HSI Chicago, HSI’s Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities (CPAA) program, and law enforcement partners at CBP.

HSI Newark and representatives from HSI's CPAA program; DOS; and CBP conducted a repatriation ceremony April 25, 2023, hosted by the Bulgarian ambassador, to return ancient coins and other miscellaneous materials seized by U.S. law enforcement officials to the Bulgarian government.