HSI El Paso returns more than 500 pre-Hispanic era artifacts to Mexico
The pieces include stone arrowheads, knife blades and tools that were illegally imported into the United States from Mexico and offered for sale. The pre-Hispanic period refers to the time before the...
View ArticleHSI returns stolen sacred artifacts to Thailand in commemoration ceremony
The return of the lintels to Thailand marks the culmination of a three-year probe by HSI Bangkok, HSI San Francisco, and subsequent prosecution by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Calif.,...
View ArticleICE returns ancient stone lintels to Thailand
In May 2017, the Ministry of Culture notified HSI Bangkok that two stolen sandstone lintels, from Khmer era sanctuaries, were exhibited at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum. A lintel is an...
View ArticleUS returns stolen ancient artifacts to Iraq in repatriation ceremony
The “Gilgamesh Dream Tablet,” originated in what is now modern-day Iraq and entered the United States in violation of federal law. An international auction house (the “Auction House”) later sold the...
View ArticleHSI, US State Department return stolen artifacts to Mali
Among the repatriated artifacts were six large funerary urns (circa 900-1700 A.D.); a comb-impressed red slip double cup vessel (circa 800-1500 A.D.); a high-necked polychrome pot (circa 1100-1400...
View ArticleICE returns ancient artifacts to the Republic of Iraq
One of the artifacts is a partial cuneiform stone tablet. Experts say it is thousands of years old and may have left the country during looting at the start of the 20th century.
View ArticlePre-Columbian clay ancient artifacts returned to the Dominican Republic
There were 28 suspected Pre-Columbian stones and one piece of wooden art identified after a CBP inspection of an incoming ferry boat. Experts from the Puerto Rico Archeological Department indicated...
View ArticleUS investigation leads to return of gold ingots, other historical artifacts...
The artifacts were transferred from HSI to Honorable Phillippe Etienne, Ambassador of France to the United States, during a repatriation ceremony at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. Among the...
View ArticleUS investigation leads to return of Madagascar fossils
ICE's HSI Detroit repatriated two ammonite fossils to Madagascar April 4.
View Article30 looted antiquities returned to Kingdom of Cambodia
On Aug. 8, Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Ricky J. Patel, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York, announced the...
View ArticleBlack Rock of Durga Stele returned to people of Nepal
The Durga Stele was returned during a repatriation ceremony Aug 24 attended by Nepal’s Acting Consul General, Bishnu Gautam, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York Acting Deputy Special...
View ArticleHSI Tucson leads efforts in transportation and security of repatriated...
A painting stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art 37 years ago has been brought back home due in large part by the careful and meticulous planning by special agents with Homeland Security...
View ArticleHSI, CBP, Department of State, US Attorney’s Office, Smithsonian Institution...
The artifacts included 64 relief carved stone heads, a bronze inscribed bowl, a stone Funerary Stele from around the 1st century BCE, and 11 pages from an 8th century Quran.
View ArticleHSI Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Program repatriates over 135...
In the second quarter of fiscal year 2023, the CPAA program repatriated more than 135 artifacts to multiple nations.
View ArticleHSI investigation results in actions against international diamond/art...
DHS and ICE's HSI, alongside partners with the U.S. Departments of Justice, Commerce, Treasury, and State announced today several international actions against Nazem Ahmad, an individual sanctioned by...
View ArticleHSI Newark investigation leads to return of ancient pottery during Republic...
HSI International Operations Deputy Assistant Director Ricardo Mayoral and H.E. Mr. Marios Lysiotis, ambassador of Cyprus at the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Washington D.C., sign a certificate...
View ArticleAncient coins, miscellaneous materials returned to Bulgaria following HSI...
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...
View ArticleFederal agents, National Hellenic Museum conduct largest repatriation of...
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.
View Article$12M settlement announced of civil forfeiture action against antiquities...
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...
View ArticleHSI repatriates rare 15th century Columbus letter to Italy
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...
View ArticleHSI repatriates high-profile dinosaur fossils to Mongolia
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...
View ArticleHSI El Paso returns stolen pre-Columbian artifacts to Mexico
The antiquities were stolen in 2008 from a private collection and museum in Cuatro Cienegas, Coahuila, Mexico.
View ArticleHSI Los Angeles repatriates chalice to Argentine Republic
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...
View ArticleHSI Tucson, multiagency investigation unearths over $1M worth of dinosaur...
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...
View ArticleHSI repatriates stolen and looted cultural property to the people of Italy
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.
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