Darwin Letter Recovered: FBI Returns 1875 Correspondence To Smithsonian Archives

The FBI offers a report on the recovery of a stolen letter written by Charles Darwin.

A handwritten letter by Charles Darwin that was stolen from the Smithsonian Institution Archives more than three decades ago was recovered by FBI special agents and returned last week to the care of the Smithsonian.

The letter, written in 1875 by the British naturalist and geologist best known for his theory of evolution, was stolen in the mid-1970s from a collection of correspondence and documents relating to the history of North American geology. The FBI received a tip about the letter earlier this year, and special agents on the Bureau’s Art Crime Team recovered the artifact. There are no criminal charges pending in the case because the statute of limitations has expired.

“Thanks to a tip from a member of the public, we were able to return this artifact to the care of the Smithsonian Archives,” said Paul Abbate, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. On May 26, he turned the letter over to Anne Van Camp, director of the Smithsonian Archives. “It’s a privilege,” Abbate said in a statement, “to return a piece of the history of science and exploration in the United States to the American people.”

The letter, written to American geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, was part of the George Perkins Merrill Papers. Merrill was head curator of the Department of Geology in the early 1900s at what is now the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Smithsonian conservators worked closely with FBI art crime experts to authenticate the Darwin letter, which went missing before it was cataloged in the Smithsonian Archives. Smithsonian experts were able to compare the letter to another one in their collection that Darwin wrote to Hayden.

You can read the rest of the report and watch a video clip via the below link:

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2016/june/darwin-letter-recovered-returned-to-smithsonian/darwin-letter-recovered-returned-to-smithsonian?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fbi-top-stories&utm_content=550154 

FBI Art Crime Team Celebrates 10th Anniversary: A Decade Of Successful Investigations And Recoveries

The FBI website offers a Q & A with the FBI's Art Crime Team's manager. 

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, FBI.gov recently discussed the team’s history, mission, and accomplishments with Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, who manages the Bureau’s art theft program.

Q: How did the Art Crime Team get started?

Magness-Gardiner: The FBI has always had agents who investigated frauds and thefts related to art, but in 2003, there was substantial looting of Iraq’s National Museum in Baghdad. Thousands of works were stolen. Because of the U.S. presence in Iraq at the time, it was clear that somebody would have to investigate. It was also clear that the U.S. government didn’t have a team organized, in place, or with the expertise required to do that kind of investigation. But the need for such a team was apparent, and the FBI took that on. The Art Crime Team was formed a year or so later.

Q: What were those early days like?

Magness-Gardiner: When I first arrived, the team consisted of eight agents located in field offices around the country, as well as three trial attorneys from the Department of Justice assigned to assist with prosecutions. Today, the agent component has almost doubled to 15 men and women. One of the great benefits of having the agents located in so many cities in the U.S. is that we literally cover the country.

You can read the rest of the interview, part 1, and watch a video via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/february/art-crime-team-celebrates-10th-anniversary-part-1  

You can read part 2 of the interview and watch a video via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/february/art-crime-team-celebrates-10th-anniversary-part-2/art-crime-team-celebrates-10th-anniversary-part-2?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fbi-top-stories&utm_content=405282