FBI Returns 2,000-Yr-Old Italian Art That Languished in LA for Decades

FBI Art Crime Team agents recently returned several pieces of historical artwork back to their rightful owners—the Italian government, with few more returnable items to follow next.

Special Agent Allen Grove of the FBI Art Crime Team undertook the task of returning priceless artifacts—ones that may have been lost for as long as 100 years—back to their rightful home in Rome.

“I thought I’d be investigating art crime and repatriating antiquities. But so much of the work behind the scenes is communications, contracts, and getting the right items to the right people,” Grove said.

In late 2020, an art attorney reached out to FBI Art Crime Team Special Agent Elizabeth Rivas about an anonymous client who had a mosaic of the mythological figure Medusa. The enormous work had been cut into 16 pieces and stored in individual pallets in a Los Angeles storage facility since the 1980s. Each pallet weighed between 75 and 200 pounds.

Some of the pallets were termite-infested, but the pieces of the mosaic were largely intact thanks to the climate-controlled facility they’d been kept in. The client had no documentation—known in the art world as provenance—so they could not sell the pieces as it’s illegal.

Mosaic Piece in Shipping Pallett

A piece of an ancient Roman mosaic, in storage for decades, was found, carefully packed in shipping containers and shipped via diplomatic channels.

When a local art expert said the mosaic was likely of North African or Italian heritage. So Rivas started with the FBI’s liaison in Italy.

A few months later, the FBI’s Italian counterpart, the Carabinieri, whose art squad frequently works with the FBI’s art crime investigators, confirmed the mosaic was Italian. It had been entered into cultural property records in 1909.

The mosaic is believed to be about 2,000 years old and is a key part of Rome’s history. The only modern record of the mosaic’s existence was a 1959 newspaper ad that appeared to show it for sale in the Los Angeles area.

Ad for sale in 1959

“We worked with the owner and made sure we documented the condition and had everything we needed to ship it back to Italy,” Grove said. “We then worked with the Italian consulate here in Los Angeles. This is something of great interest to Italy; they came and inspected the mosaic and helped us facilitate the logistics of actually getting it back to Italy.”

The art arrived safely in April, and experts are now working to clean and restore it so the art can be enjoyed by generations to come.

“The mosaic was handcrafted from an age where people put an amazing amount of care and effort into it. It really speaks to the ingenuity and creativity of the time,” Grove said. “It’s not meant to be in Los Angeles. The mosaic belongs to the people of Rome. It allows us to understand a bit about the history of humans 2,000 years ago.”

Earlier returned two paintings

Prior to this, the FBI New York Art Crime Team returned two stolen paintings, dating back to the 1820’s, to the Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz, NY after the works were stolen five decades ago.

The team reached out to members of the Art Crime Team in 2021 when they discovered the painting had been listed for sale at an auction. Investigators tracked down the buyer, who did not know the paintings had been stolen, and they assisted the FBI in returning the art to HHS.

Ammi Phillips, a famed 19th century portrait painter, created these art works / FBI

In December 1971, a woman named Marie Wiersum donated the works to what was then known as Huguenot Historical Society. The paintings depict Derrick Wynkoop and his wife Ann Eltinge, a wealthy married couple who were decedents of the first Dutch settlers in the area.

Both were oil on canvas created by Ammi Phillips, a famed 19th century portrait painter. In February 1972, the paintings were stolen from HHS, along with several other items. Members of the Society were able to track down many of the pieces by March 1972, but never recovered the paintings.

Through the course of their investigation, FBI agents discovered police made an arrest in the theft. However, no public documentation of the paintings showed up until the auction house listed them for sale in 2005. Agents attended the paintings on June 2, 2022.