A Seventeenth-century reliquary urn, carved and gilded in wooden and believed to be one in all 17 ecclesiastical artifacts stolen from the Church of San Michele Arcangelo di Cangiano in Italy between Aug. 1, 2012, and Aug. 31, 2022, has been recovered by the FBI’s Boston Division.
Vintage urns from the Seventeenth century are usually priced from roughly $500 to over $35,000, however when they’re a part of a church’s cultural heritage, they are often thought-about priceless. Reliquary gadgets in Italian church buildings are generally registered within the stock of Historic Inventive Heritage managed by the Italian Episcopal Convention (CEI) and native dioceses to stop theft.
The FBI’s Boston Division stated it recovered the urn on Feb. 11 from an antiques supplier within the Northeast who bought it from one other antiques supplier in Italy. The merchandise was relinquished voluntarily.
“It’s incredibly exciting when the FBI can recover a piece of history that carries such deep emotional and cultural significance. 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,” Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, said in a statement.
“It represents the intersection of faith, history and art — elements that are invaluable to the people of Italy and to humanity as a whole. This case highlights the power of international cooperation and our collective commitment to safeguard the world’s cultural treasures, no matter where they may be.”
The investigation into the stolen urn started in fall 2025 via cooperation between the FBI’s Artwork Crime Crew, the FBI’s legislation enforcement attaché in Rome, and counterparts from the Italian Carabinieri, the FBI’s Boston Division stated.
The urn will likely be repatriated at a later date throughout a ceremony in Rome. For the reason that FBI’s Artwork Crime Crew’s inception, the FBI has recovered 20,000 gadgets of stolen artwork valued at greater than $1 billion.
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“Well bless their hearts.”
