Federal officials found a treasure-trove of about 3,500 historic items, including letters from medieval popes and items from Italian churches, at the home of a Chicago man after his death in March 2007. The secret collection John Sisto kept in his Berwyn bungalow had letters written by kings, Vatican documents penned by Catholic popes and even a handwritten book preface by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Federal officials said Monday that the results of a two-year investigation determined that 1,600 of the items were stolen from Italy and shipped to the US to be sold.
The items, with an estimated value of $5 million to $10 million, will be returned to Italy later this week, according to FBI spokesman Ross Rice.
The ownership of the remaining 2,000 items could not be verified, so they were being returned to the Sisto family.
Although the items were removed from Italy in violation of its cultural property laws, Rice said there would be no US criminal prosecutions in connection with theft, transportation or possession of stolen artifacts.
Sisto's son Joseph said he was aware of his father's large collection of artifacts when he was growing up.
"He fell in love with (his collection) to be honest," said Joseph Sisto, 48, who lives in Duluth, Ga. "He thought it was history."
In the mid-2000s, Joseph Sisto learned that many of the items were likely illegal and confronted his father, telling them that the artifacts should be returned to Italy but his father refused.
When his father died, Joseph Sisto asked local police to investigate.
The artifacts and documents date back as far as the 4th Century B.C. and include parchments and manuscripts from Pope Paul III in the 1500s and Pope Paul V in the 1600s.
A collection of small statues, known as the Canosa artifacts, is believed to have been taken from an Italian chapel where the objects were offered as devotions to God.
Letters from Kings Charles V from 1534 and Ferdinand II from 1847 also were included.
On Monday, Joseph Sisto said he was happy that the artifacts would be returned to Italy to be studied and displayed in museums.
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