News Releases and Statements

ICE returned a Tyrannosaurus Bataar skeleton, looted from the Gobi Desert and illegally smuggled into the United States, to the government of Mongolia Monday during a repatriation ceremony at a Manhattan hotel. The Bataar was seized in New York by ICE's HSI special agents after it sold at a Manhattan auction for $1.05 million.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) returned a 16th century tapestry, stolen in 1979 from a church, to the government of Spain Wednesday at a repatriation ceremony at the Spanish ambassador's residence in Washington.

The ivory statues are now in the care and custody of the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

A federal grand jury indicted four defendants Wednesday on charges of smuggling Peruvian artifacts and interstate transportation of stolen property following an undercover probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

James Amato, 50, of Oxford, Mich., was arrested without incident at his residence after being charged in a federal arrest warrant with making false statements, transportation of stolen goods and for the sale or receipt of stolen goods.

A rare Etruscan black-figure kalpis, which has been traced back to 510 B.C., will be returned to the Italian government following a transfer ceremony Tuesday at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Eric Prokopi pleaded guilty Dec. 27 to engaging in a scheme to illegally import into the United States numerous dinosaur fossils that had been smuggled out of their native country. This guilty plea resulted from an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Four men, including two New Jersey residents, were arrested Thursday and charged with conspiring to sell seven stolen firearms believed to have belonged to the family of Saddam Hussein, the late Iraqi president.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad hosted a delegation of nine American subject matter experts in the fields of federal law enforcement, justice and cultural heritage protection including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents, from Dec. 17 to 20 at a training conference on "Countering Antiquities Trafficking."

The government of Spain requested assistance to seize the property.

Today, special agents with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), seized a 14th century A.D. bronze Parvati statue and four bronze Tamil Nadu figures, estimated as a group to be worth more than $5 million.

ICE returned more than 4,000 pieces of stolen and looted cultural artifacts to the government of Mexico at a repatriation ceremony today at the Consulate of Mexico in El Paso, Texas.

Special agents with ICE's HSI seized two antique statues Oct. 23 from a Manhattan hotel. These statues were seized as part of an ongoing HSI Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Program investigation into Subhash Kapoor, an alleged dealer of stolen antiquities.

Fossils include a Tyrannosaurus dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia.

Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents seized several sandstone and bronze statues.

HSI special agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport first learned of the stolen Nok statues in April 2010 after receiving information from French customs officials.

The HSI Frankfurt attache and the U.S. ambassador to Germany participated in a repatriation ceremony with the director of the Potsdam Sanssouci Museum.

ICE returned 14 stolen and looted cultural paintings and artifacts to the government of Peru at a repatriation ceremony in Washington, D.C. The items were recovered in five separate investigations by special agents of ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New York; West Virginia; Wilmington, Delaware; and Austin and Houston, Texas.

The nearly complete skeleton of a dinosaur was forfeited today to ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). This action stems from an investigation by HSI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Bataar dinosaur was looted from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

A rare Etruscan black-figure kalpis which has been traced back to 510 B.C. will be returned to the Italian government following an agreement between the United States and the Toledo Museum of Art. The arrangement comes after an investigation by ICE's HSI.

Seven stolen and looted objects of Italian cultural heritage will soon be on their way back to Italy, following a ceremony Thursday in which U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano officially returned the antiquities to Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero at the Embassy of Italy in Washington.

An antiquities dealer, Mousa Khouli, pleaded guilty Wednesday to smuggling Egyptian cultural property into the United States and making a false statement to law enforcement authorities.

A 400-year-old masterpiece work of art taken illegally from its owners in Nazi-occupied France during World War II was returned today to the family from which it was stolen more than 70 years ago.

Since 2007, ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have repatriated more than 2,500 objects to more than 23 countries.

Eight artifacts that were illegally exported from Guatemala in two separate incidents were officially returned to the country at a repatriation ceremony Friday at the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington.