Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Boston office have recovered a 17th century urn that was stolen from a church in Italy.
Agents obtained the item in February but did not announce what happened until April 30, Fox News reported Friday.
Authorities said they recovered a 17th century reliquary urn that was stolen from the Church of San Michele Arcangelo di Cangiano between August 2012 and August 2022. The agency said the urn was believed to be one of 17 ecclesiastical artifacts that disappeared from the church, noting a formal repatriation ceremony was held on April 29.
“The FBI, at the request of the Italian Ministry of Culture, recovered the opulent 17th century reliquary urn on February 11, 2026, from an antiques dealer based in the Northeast who had purchased it from another antiques dealer in Italy. The dealer has voluntarily relinquished ownership of this historic artifact so it can be returned to its rightful home,” the agency explained.
The FBI also shared a photo of the Baroque urn, which is made of gilded wood and sits on four feet:
Reliquaries can be used to hold sacred relics or secular keepsakes, according to Funeral.com.
“Historically, reliquaries were created to hold relics — objects associated with saints or sacred figures — kept in containers meant to honor and protect what was inside. Even when a family is not religious, that core idea still resonates: the belief that certain things deserve careful keeping, and that the container itself can be part of the honoring,” the site read.
The FBI said the urn is part of Italian history and is registered in the Historical Artistic Heritage Items of the C.E.I. (Italian Episcopal Conference) Italian Dioceses.
Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of FBI Boston, stated, “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. 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,” Docks added.
Breitbart News has covered incredible historical finds over the years. In 2025, a 2,000-year-old Egyptian vase was found buried at a Pompeii snack bar, and seventeen rare books worth $3 million stolen in the 1980s were recently returned to the heirs of a Long Island philanthropist.
