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News & Updates

In the News: FBI Returns Stolen Artifacts During Repatriation Ceremony at the Museum

March 13, 2023
Image Repatriation Event Artifacts 313 23

At a ceremony held Monday, March 13, at the Museum, the FBI’s Art Crime Team and its law enforcement partners repatriated 50 items — the oldest dating back to the French and Indian War — belonging to 17 institutions located in five different states.

Among the artifacts returned to their owning institutions were an 1847 Mississippi rifle stolen from a Mississippi museum; a World War II battlefield pickup pistol belonging to General Omar Bradley, stolen from the U.S. Army War College Museum; 19th century Pennsylvania rifles, stolen from Pennsylvania museums; a Colt Whitneyville Walker revolver stolen from the Connecticut State Library; a French and Indian War-era powder horn stolen from the Stone House Museum in Belchertown, Massachusetts; and a number of 18th century English and Scottish pistols stolen from the Valley Forge Historical Society Museum.

Photo Gallery

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Representatives from the 17 owning institutions simultaneously signed for the return of their items.
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K.T. Newton, Assistant United States Attorney, United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of PA, spoke at the event.
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An attendee of the ceremony views artifacts that were returned.
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Representatives from the Delaware County Historical Society stand with their returned items.
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Items, including a 19th-century rush light (far left), returned to the Haverford Township Historical Society.
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A French and Indian War powder horn once carried by ensign Justus Dwight returned to the Belchertown Historical Association.

Along with the Museum, owning institutions receiving repatriated artifacts included Blair County Historical Society, Delaware County Historical Society, Haverford Township Historical Society, The Hershey Story Museum, Juniata County Historical Society, Longmeadow Historical Society, Mississippi Department of Archives & History, Museum of Connecticut History, Old Stone Fort Museum, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Springfield Armory National Historic Site, Belchertown Historical Association, and U.S. Army War College.

In December 2021, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania indicted Michael Corbett of Newark, Delaware, for possession of those firearms and other items stolen from museums in the 1970s. In August 2022, Corbett pleaded guilty to the possession of stolen items transported interstate, and, in accordance with his plea agreement, turned over to the government additional stolen firearms to which he had access.

In Case You Missed It

WHYY
"16 history museums get their stolen guns back"
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Philadelphia Inquirer
"Stolen muskets, pistols, and swords from the Revolutionary War have been recovered by the FBI"
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NBC10 Philadelphia
"FBI Returns Museum Artifacts Stolen Over 50 Years Ago"
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PhillyVoice
"FBI returns stolen artifacts to Pennsylvania historical societies"
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