Returning stolen heritage: Federal agents give seized antiquities back to El Salvador

A piece of burned corn on the cob.

A stamp. A whistle. A bowl. Figurines.

They aren’t big. Their dollar value is not known.

But to federal investigators, and the government of El Salvador, they are priceless.

The 13 items were displayed Friday at a ceremony at Homeland Security Investigation’s Chicago office in Lombard, where they were returned to El Salvador.

Vanessa Guevara, the Chicago Consul General for El Salvador, beamed with excitement.

“We are very grateful to the government of the United States and the Department of Homeland Security as their support has been essential to reclaim and protect our artifacts,” Guevara said.

The nation is trying to build museums to display such items, she said.

“This is so important for us to keep it (the items) safe, now more than ever,” Guevara said.

Guevara said the small pieces that bear faces probably depict rulers, and that some of the items may have been affiliated with the Mayans.

Nicholas Ilg, an HSI special agent, said the petrified corn likely came from an offering.

Ilg said investigators consult anthropologists and other experts to learn about seized objects.

Friday’s items were 800 to 1,700 years old, according to John McCabe, deputy special agent in charge of HSI-Chicago.

He said the looting and sale of such antiquities is “robbing the cultural heritage of a nation.”

“Unfortunately, this is pretty prevalent,” McCabe said.

HSI’s Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities program partners with the State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center and the Smithsonian Institution to train HSI and FBI agents, customs officers and prosecutors.

Since 2007, HSI and its Cultural Property Art and Antiquities program have repatriated more than 20,000 objects to more than 30 countries, McCabe said.

In 2022 and 2023, the Chicago office repatriated ancient coins to Greece.

HSI still is investigating the El Salvadoran antiquities case, so agents would not discuss when exactly the items were discovered, other than to say in the past few years.

The items were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents at the Foreign Mail Facility at Miami International Airport. They were marked merely as “stone and clay items,” bound for an address in Illinois.

That description was one clue something suspicious was afoot, according to Daniel Johnsen, assistant special agent in charge of the Chicago HSI office. Legitimate sellers and collectors typically give a more detailed description on shipping manifests, because they want documentation for insurance purposes, he said.

Johnsen said antiquities often are taken when countries are in states of upheaval, such as during and after a war.

No criminal charges have been filed as of yet. Charges could be filed in Chicago, in Miami, or in El Salvador, Johnsen said.