The FBI’s Boston Division has recovered a 17th-century reliquary urn believed to be among 17 ecclesiastical artifacts stolen from an Italian church over a decade ago, the bureau announced, noting that a formal repatriation ceremony has been arranged in Rome.
The carved and gilded wooden urn was taken from the Church of San Michele Arcangelo di Cangiano sometime between August 2012 and August 2022, the FBI said. Agents recovered the artifact on Feb. 11, 2026, from an antiques dealer in the Northeast who had purchased it from another dealer in Italy, according to the bureau. The dealer voluntarily relinquished ownership so the piece could be returned to Italy, the FBI said.
The urn is registered in the inventory of the Historical Artistic Heritage Items of the Italian Episcopal Conference and is subject to protection by the Italian state under accords with Vatican City, the bureau said.
“It’s incredibly exciting when the FBI can recover a piece of history that carries such deep emotional and cultural significance,” said Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “This reliquary urn is a tangible link to intense religious devotion and a connection to the generations who lived and prayed with it. It represents the intersection of faith, history, and art — elements that are invaluable to the people of Italy and to humanity as a whole.”
Docks added that the 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 FBI said its Boston field office launched the investigation in the fall of 2025 following sustained coordination and intelligence sharing between the bureau’s Art Crime Team, its law enforcement attaché in Rome and counterparts from the Italian Carabinieri. The recovery was made at the request of the Italian Ministry of Culture, the bureau said.
The Art Crime Team, composed of specially trained agents and personnel focused on art and cultural property investigations, is coordinating the urn’s repatriation to Italy in connection with a ceremony in Rome, the FBI said. Since the team’s inception, the bureau said it has recovered more than 20,000 items valued at more than $1 billion.
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