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July 5, 2017
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

The government also filed a stipulation of settlement with Hobby Lobby, in which Hobby Lobby consented to the forfeiture of the artifacts in the complaint, approximately 144 cylinder seals and an additional sum of $3 million, resolving the civil action. Hobby Lobby further agreed to adopt internal policies and procedures governing its importation and purchase of cultural property, provide appropriate training to its personnel, hire qualified outside customs counsel and customs brokers, and submit quarterly reports to the government on any cultural property acquisitions for the next eighteen months.

June 30, 2017
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
|
The Royal Seals belonged to Queen Munjeong, who reigned from 1545 to 1565 and King Hyeonjong, who reigned from 1659 to 1674. The seal belonging to Queen Munjeong is believed to have been stolen during the Korean War (1950-1953) and illegally removed from Korea. King Hyeonjong's seal is believed to have been stolen during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945).
April 19, 2017
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Boston Public Library repatriated several items of significant cultural value to the government of Italy at a ceremony Wednesday at the Boston Public Library. Included among these items were a 14th century manuscript, an illuminated page from a 15th century manuscript, nearly 200 ancient Roman coins and a book from the personal library of a 14th century Archbishop in Sicily.

April 6, 2017
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

The two-day meeting, which was held March 30-31, centered on the theme “Culture as a Tool for Dialogue among Peoples.” The event brought together officials from Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and the United States, to discuss the preservation and protection of cultural heritage, and the fight against trafficking of artistic and historic items.

February 10, 2017
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

According to the indictment, from March 2014 through October 2015, the four defendants conspired to violate the IACA by displaying and offering for sale jewelry manufactured in the Philippines in a manner that suggested that it was Indian-produced and the product of American Indian tribes.

February 9, 2017
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

According to evidence presented at trial and court records, Ijaz Khan, 42, of Sante Fe, New Mexico, was part of a conspiracy that smuggled ancient artifacts into the U.S., including pottery and bronze weapons stolen from burial sites and coins from a cave temple in Pakistan called the Kashmir Smast.

January 12, 2017
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
Items returned included 296 ceramics and 51 textiles, some dating as far back as the 8th century A.D., including items from the Chancay civilization, which existed more than a thousand years ago in the area that is now modern day Peru. In addition, a Nazca-style Peruvian vessel, a comb, and a beaded necklace were among other artifacts returned, several from the Moche culture, an ancient Peruvian civilization. A 1735 copy of the book, “El Sol, y Año Feliz del Peru San Francisco Solano” was also be repatriated.
December 21, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

A new exhibit of repatriated cultural property, including paintings, sculptures, manuscripts and vases, recently debuted at the world-renowned Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.  Scheduled to be on display for the next two months, the entire exhibition, comprising more than 250 items, is dedicated to pieces that were stolen or otherwise missing but have since been recovered and repatriated back to Italy.

December 9, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
ICE and CBP repatriated a page from a 14th century manuscript and a 19th century Carelli painting to the government of Italy at a ceremony Friday at the Italian Embassy in Washington.
December 7, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

The 23 pre-Columbian artifacts were presented at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture in Dominican Republic during an activity chaired by the United States ambassador, the Minister of Culture Pedro Vergés Cimán and the HSI Special Agent in Charge in Charge in Puerto Rico, Ricardo Mayoral.

December 1, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

On Sept. 8, 2009, HSI New York recovered a nesting sarcophagus from a garage in Brooklyn, New York. One year later, on Sept. 24, 2010, following leads from the Brooklyn case, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Newark seized a shipment of smuggled Egyptian goods, including a funerary boat model and figurines. 

November 30, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

Vallabh Prakash, 86, and his son Aditya Prakash, 47, both were arrested at their homes in Mumbai, India.  Each is being charged by Indian authorities with smuggling idols stolen from temples in India.  Originally from Nepal, the Prakash family settled in Mumbai in 1959.

November 4, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
The Master of Dominican Effigies, an important illuminator, created an illuminated manuscript known as Codex D sometime between 1335 and 1345. Codex D, essentially a type of hymnal, is parchment with leather binding and contained seven illuminated pages.
September 6, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologist Matt Lamanna played a key role in HSI’s investigation and ultimately identified the fossil as a kind of feathered predatory dinosaur. To highlight this case, the Chinese government loaned the fossil to the Carnegie Museum as a temporary part of their permanent dinosaur exhibit.

June 6, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

The majority of the pieces repatriated in the ceremony were seized during Operation Hidden Idol, an investigation that began in 2007 after HSI special agents received a tip about a shipment of seven crates destined for the United States manifested as “marble garden table sets.”  Examination of the shipment in question revealed numerous antiquities.  This shipment was imported by Subhash Kapoor, owner of Art of the Past Gallery, who awaits trial in India.

May 27, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations, Document and Benefit Fraud

Three individuals – Ijaz Khan, 42, and Vera Lautt, 56, both of Sante Fe, New Mexico, and Ibrar Khan, of Pakistan – face charges for conspiracy to defraud the United States and naturalizing and procuring U.S. citizenship by fraud. Ijaz Khan, along with Fahad Khan, of Pakistan, face additional charges, including smuggling artifacts from Pakistan into the United States and obstructing justice.

May 18, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations

"Preserving records and chronicles of our past, like this letter, is of utmost importance not only to the special agents who investigate these crimes, but to the global community at large," said ICE Deputy Director Dan Ragsdale. "Today's repatriation ceremony signals our continued commitment to these investigations and is a testament to our partnerships, both here and abroad."

April 13, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
This seizure follows a joint international investigation led by HSI New York, and the Italian Cabanieri. The Italians traced the Nolan Amphora to a gallery in New York City. It is believed that the Nolan Amphora might have been in the United States illegally since as early as 1997.
April 5, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
Mongolian patrimony laws prohibit the export of dinosaur fossils, as well as the private ownership of these items. The returned pieces include nearly complete skeletons of Bactrosaurus, Protoceratops and Psittcosaurus, a nest of Protoceratops eggs, and the skulls of an Alioramus and a Psittcosaurus.
March 11, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
This seizure contained a 2nd Century Bodhisattva schist head from the Gandhara region (likely from what is now known today as Swat Valley, Pakistan,) and is estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
March 11, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
The seizure comes just days before a planned March 15, 2016 auction of the items as part of the "Asia Week New York" festivities. Christie's had included the two artifacts in an auction entitled: "The Lahiri Collection: Indian and Himalayan Art, Ancient and Modern."
March 3, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
The repatriated documents include: a signed order from Josef Stalin issued on March 14, 1944; a decree signed by Peter the Great; numerous decrees signed by empresses and emperors dating from 1736-1893; and 17 drawings by Russian architect Yakov Chernikov.
February 22, 2016
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
Jun Yang, 37, who served as president of Arctic Products, Inc., based in Richmond, British Columbia, appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson.
December 16, 2015
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
Jonathan M. Markell, 70, the owner of Silk Roads Design Gallery (which previously was located on North La Brea Avenue and now operates in the Jefferson Park district of Los Angeles), was sentenced Monday afternoon by U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson, who called Markell's crimes "significant."
December 16, 2015
|Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
The bataar skull, a fossil from the Cretaceous period, which ended approximately 65 million years ago, had been auctioned in Manhattan in 2007 after being unlawfully brought into the United States. The current owner of the bataar skull, having been informed of its origins and the circumstances of its importation into the United States, has consented to its forfeiture.
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