Stolen treasures worth USD 10mn to be returned to Italy

About 1,600 rare Italian artifacts worth nearly 10 million dollars (Rs 47.5 crore aproximately), including letters written by former kings and popes, discovered at an Illinois home of an art collector would be returned to Italy, FBI officials said today.

The items are among over 3,500 suspected antiquities that were discovered in April 2007 inside the Berwyn, Illinois residence of John Sisto, an Italian immigrant and avid art collector.
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All of the items are believed to have been removed from Italy in violation of their Cultural Property laws, FBI officials said at a press conference at their headquarters here.
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The value of these items has been estimated at between five to 10 million dollars, FBI spokesman Ross Rice said.

The repatriated items include parchments and manuscripts, many with papal wax seals and some dating to the 1100s; several hundred Etruscan artifacts dating to 500-900 BC; over 1,000 books, some handwritten, dating to the 1700s and numerous religious and political artifacts, including letters written by former kings, popes and other members of the Roman Catholic Church.

The stolen relics also include a hand written manuscript by Benito Mussolini, Italy's fascist dictator.The items were first reported by Sisto's family members after he died in 2007.

FBI authorities took possession of over 3,500 items and began the exhaustive process of trying to identify and authenticate each one.

Investigations determined that most came from Italy's Bari region. Although uncertain how this quantity of historical artifacts came to be in the Berwyn residence, investigators believe that they were secretly shipped to Sisto between 1960-1980 by his father, Giuseppe Sisto living in Italy.

Sisto operated a collectables store in Berwyn. The origin and ownership of the remaining 2,000 items recovered from the Berwyn residence could not be determined and would be returned to the estate of John Sisto.

No criminal prosecutions would be forthcoming in connection with the theft, transportation or possession of the stolen artifacts, officials said.