An ancient Roman epitaph, recovered by FBI New Orleans, is now safely back in its home country. The marble funerary stone was one of two antiquities officially repatriated from the FBI in the United States to Italy in a ceremony in Rome on Wednesday. The other item is a reliquary urn with a possible saint’s remains inside, which was recovered by the FBI Boston.
The FBI works with international partners to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property, according to an FBI New Orleans news release. In this case, a New Orleans resident reported finding the Roman imperial-period tablet in May of 2025 while she was cleaning up her backyard and turned it over to the FBI for safekeeping. FBI New Orleans, in turn, relinquished the relic to a member of the FBI’s Art Crime Team in November 2025. The FBI Law Enforcement Attaché Office in Rome communicated daily with Italian officials to coordinate the ultimate return of the items.
The funerary stone was just one of many items returned Wednesday under the U.S.-Italy Cultural Property Agreement (CPA). The CPA with Italy is the nation’s oldest bilateral cultural property agreement with a European country. The agreement places import restrictions on Italian antiquities to disrupt the financing of criminal organizations as well as ensure Americans have access to Italian antiquities and archaeological sites for educational, cultural, and scientific purposes.
