By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Federal officials announced yesterday that they found 1,600 items stolen from Italy in the bungalow of a Chicago man. Included among the papers are Vatican documents penned by two popes, letters written by kings, and a handwritten book preface by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, FBI spokesman Ross Rice said the property was in the possession of John Sisto and was part of a collection of over 3,500 ancient artifacts, religious relics, rare manuscripts and other historic items that were seized by authorities after his death in March 2007.
A two year investigation of the materials began after Sisti’s son, Joseph, alerted police to the collection after his father died. He said his grandfather, Giuseppe Sisto, used to travel Europe and buy the items in estate sales and ship them to the U.S. in “hundreds of crates” for John to sell. However, John became attached to the items and decided to keep them rather than sell them.
“He fell in love with it to be honest,” said Joseph Sisto, 48, who lives in Duluth, Ga. “He thought it was beautiful. He thought it was history.”
In the mid-2000s, Joseph Sisto learned that many of the items were likely illegal and confronted his father, telling them that the artifacts should be returned to Italy. His father refused, which caused a rift between them that lasted until his death.
When Joseph alerted police to the property, Police Chief William Kushner said he found a house filled with hundreds of boxes, many piled five feet high, and all labeled in Italian. Sisto kept the most precious artificats upstairs, including paintings that were covered in cardboard and documents dating back as far as the 4th century B.C.
“There was stuff all over the house in boxes. The most valuable stuff from the Vatican was on the second floor in the attic,” Kushner said.
It was here that Sisto kept manuscripts from Pope Paul III written in the 1500s and Pope Paul V in the 1600s. Letters from King Charles V from 1534 and Ferdinand II from 1847 were also uncovered.
During the two-year probe, FBI officials worked with Italian authorities and determined that most of the stolen artificats came from the Bari region of Italy, where John Sisto was born.
On Monday, Joseph Sisto said he was happy that the artifacts would be returned to Italy to be studied and displayed in museums.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Joseph Sisto said. “It’s history undiscovered. It shouldn’t be in the hands of one man.”
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