FBI Recovers 17th-Century Italian Reliquary Urn Stolen from Church, Repatriates It

The FBI has recovered a stolen 17th-century religious artifact from Italy that turned up in New England.

Agents seized the reliquary urn on February 11, but the Boston office did not announce the recovery until April 30. The urn was one of 17 ecclesiastical artifacts taken from the Church of San Michele Arcangelo di Cangiano between 2012 and 2022, according to an FBI statement.

Images of the gilded urn show its ornate Baroque design, used to hold Catholic relics. Kristen Setera, a spokesperson for the FBI's Boston office, said the church discovered the urn missing during a November 2022 inventory.

Investigators tracked the roughly 400-year-old item to a New England antiques dealer who bought it from a dealer in Italy. "We do not know how or who stole the urn from the church, but we do know it was sold to a New England-based antiques dealer and shipped to the United States," Setera told Fox News Digital.

The FBI collaborated with Italian authorities to identify the dealer. Agents interviewed the dealer, examined the urn and learned how it was acquired. "Based on this interview and examination of the urn, the determination was made [that] the urn was the one missing from the church of San Michele Arcangelo," Setera said.

The FBI shared this information with the dealer, who agreed to surrender the urn for repatriation to Italy. "It represents the intersection of faith, history and art."

The agency worked with the Italian Ministry of Culture during the process. Italy held a formal repatriation ceremony for the urn on April 29.

The Baroque urn "represents a significant piece of Italian history," the FBI said, and is "subject to protection by the Italian State based on the Accords in force with the Vatican City State."

Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston Division, called the recovery "incredibly exciting." "After all, this reliquary urn is a tangible link to intense religious devotion and a connection to the generations who lived and prayed with it," Docks said in a statement.