A New Orleans couple clearing undergrowth in their yard unearthed a 1,900-year-old Roman grave marker, sparking a quest to repatriate it to Italy. Tulane University anthropologist Daniella Santoro and her husband Aaron Lorenz discovered the marble slab in March, noting a Latin inscription.
Santoro contacted archaeologists and classicists who identified the headstone as dedicated to Sextus Congenius Verus, a second-century Roman sailor and military member. The stone matched a missing artifact from the city museum of Civitavecchia, Italy.
The couple turned the relic over to the FBI's art crime team for repatriation. Researchers believe the headstone arrived in New Orleans in the 20th century, possibly after World War II, but its exact path remains unclear.
The home belonged to the Simon family for most of the 1900s, but they are not considered likely culprits. A neighbour who served in the US Navy during the war was also ruled out, as he served only in the Pacific.
Lusnia's research revealed that the Civitavecchia museum was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943-44, and a 1954 inventory was compiled from older documents, suggesting the stone was lost in the post-war chaos. The possibility remains that it was sold by an antique dealer or used as a paving stone.
