Boston FBI recovers 17th century urn stolen from Italian church years ago

The FBI’s Boston Division has recovered a 17th-century reliquary that was stolen years ago from an Italian church, officials said.

The gilded urn carved in wood is believed to be one of 17 ecclesiastical relics stolen from the church of San Michele Arcangelo di Cangiano. Announce Thursday. The FBI returned the urn to the Italian Republic, and an official repatriation ceremony was held on Wednesday.

“It is very exciting when the FBI is able to recover a piece of history that holds such deep emotional and cultural significance,” Ted Dukes, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division, said in the announcement. “This case highlights the power of international cooperation and our collective commitment to protecting the world’s cultural treasures, no matter where they are located.”

Officials said the urn and other artifacts were stolen from the church sometime between August 2012 and August 2022. The FBI began investigating the urn’s location during the fall of 2025 in coordination with its Art Crimes Team, the Rome Law Enforcement Attaché, and the Italian Carabinieri.

The agency worked with the Italian Ministry of Culture to recover the urn after discovering that an antiques dealer based in the country’s northeast had purchased it from an Italian dealer, according to the FBI. The North East merchant voluntarily surrendered the urn on February 11 so that it could be returned to the church from which it had been stolen.

The FBI said the urn’s importance to Italian history earned it a registered place in the Italian dioceses’ inventory of historical artistic heritage items. These items are protected by the Italian State and the Vatican City State.

“This reliquary urn is a tangible link to intense religious devotion and a connection to the generations who lived and prayed with it,” Dukes said. “It represents the intersection of faith, history and art – elements that are invaluable to the people of Italy and to humanity as a whole.”