MIAMI — They were found spread out in cupboards, book
shelves and in boxes inside a trailer home in Central Florida.
On Tuesday, about 150 Peruvian and Ecuadorian artifacts,
some more than three centuries old, were returned to their homeland where
authorities say they belong.
“I couldn’t dare to put a value to the collection, but
as a culture, to us they are invaluable,” said Jaime Arrospide, deputy
consul general of Peru, during a news conference in Miami.
The bizarre case began in 2007 when a retired businessman,
identified as Edgardo Sosa, died with no relatives or heirs. After a long
probate case, a management group that ran Sosa’s retirement community in Avon
Park, Fla., bought his home. Sales manager Heather Barfield said she found the
artifacts and realized quickly they weren’t just any pottery that could be
found on eBay.
“In searching the Internet, we realized this is illegal
to possess. So we contacted the FBI,” she said on Tuesday.
Most of the artifacts — baskets, jewelry, figurines and
sculptures — appear to be red clay pots of various sizes. Others seem to be
made from cloth. Barfield said they were spread throughout the two-bedroom,
pre-manufactured home.
The FBI’s Art Crime Team based in Miami teamed with
archaeologists from Florida International University to trace the origins. They
believe they were initially stolen from graves and churches and later sold on
the black market.
About 140 items were determined to be from areas in that
make up modern-day Peru, and 12 were traced to sites in modern-day Ecuador.
Most pre-date the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the
Western Hemisphere, and are widely considered by experts to range from 500 to
3,200 years old, said Special Agent Dan Carpenter, who led the investigation.
But a few pieces were so ancient that researchers could not determine their
period, he said.
“The countries were not even established when some of
these pieces were created, so it’s difficult to establish which civilization
they came from,” Carpenter said.
Representatives from both countries said Tuesday the pieces
will likely end up in museums.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
