Before the case of the lost $1 million relic could be solved, over 20 years of tenacious detective work and a trail that crossed countries were required.
At a ceremony to honor the occasion, a US official declared, “A treasured piece of history [is] finally heading home.”
That historical artifact is a little silver coin with a lot of symbolism that was produced during a Jewish uprising about two thousand years ago.
It was eventually located, seized, and is being restored to its original location after being stolen in Israel in 2002.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) received information from informants that the coin had been stolen by Palestinians from a trove discovered in the Ella Valley, south of Jerusalem. This is where the drama began.
The coin moved via illegal antiquities markets in Israel, Jordan, and the UK, according to the IAA, which claims to have spent the following 15 years looking for it. In the end, it was shipped to the US and put up for auction in Denver, Colorado, in 2017.
The IAA informed US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), who then seized custody of the coin in an administrative capacity.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU) was given the case, and with the assistance of law enforcement in Europe and the Middle East, they were able to gather information from informants in five different countries and secure a court order to repatriate the coin.
