WILMINGTON, Del. —On Sunday, Oct. 20, CBS Information’ 60 MINUTES will air a story highlighting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) Wilmington, Delaware, investigation that resulted within the restoration and return of three stolen fifteenth century Columbus Letters, describing his discoveries within the Americas. Because of an HSI investigation, the letters had been decided to have been stolen from three separate libraries in Europe – the Nationwide Library of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain; the Riccardiana Library in Florence, Italy and the Vatican Library in Vatican Metropolis. The trouble to find, get well and return the letters concerned a multi-year, joint investigation carried out by HSI, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Delaware, and international legislation enforcement companions in Italy and Spain.
Since September 2011, HSI has been conducting a world cultural property investigation regarding a number of traditionally important, printed letters authored by explorer Christopher Columbus throughout his return journey from the New World in 1493. The investigation revealed that a number of authentic editions of the Columbus Letter had been stolen from a number of European libraries and changed with forgeries with out the data of library officers or native legislation enforcement businesses. Since 2016, HSI particular brokers and prosecutors from america Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Delaware have partnered to return three valuable letters documenting Columbus’ journey again to their rightful residence. In Could 2016, the repatriation of the Riccardiana Columbus Letter accomplished in Rome, Italy. In June 2018, the Catalonia Columbus Letter was repatriated in Washington, DC and the Vatican Columbus Letter was repatriated in Vatican Metropolis.
“Homeland Safety Investigations is devoted to investigating these looking for to pilfer historical past’s treasures and returning them to their rightful house owners,” stated Particular Agent in Cost Marlon V. Miller of HSI Philadelphia. “These artifacts don’t belong to anybody individual or one nation, however are supposed to be shared with the worldwide neighborhood. Some of the impactful methods to bridge our variations is thru sharing our cultural heritage with one another.”
