CHICAGO (AP) — More than 120 stolen artifacts worth as much as $5 million have been returned to Chicago’s Polish Museum of America.
The FBI returned the letters and documents dating to the 18th and 19th centuries to the museum on Wednesday. The museum’s president, Maria Ciesla (chess LAH), says she was “hoping against hope” the pieces would eventually be found. The FBI says they went missing in the 1970s or 1980s.
The letters include signatures of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and American Revolution hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko (kohsh KOOSH’ koh). The artifacts also include Nazi propaganda from World War II.
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FBI officials say no one was charged because the statute of limitations ran out.
Ciesla says the museum will cataloged the items and they should be on exhibit in the next few years.
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