February 28, 2019

Cache Of Artifacts Found in Indiana To Be Returned To China

Artifacts on display at Don Miller's farm in 2014. For more than seven decades, Miller unearthed cultural artifacts from North America, South America, Asia, the Caribbean, and in Indo-Pacific regions such as Papua New Guinea. - Art Crime — FBI

Artifacts on display at Don Miller's farm in 2014. For more than seven decades, Miller unearthed cultural artifacts from North America, South America, Asia, the Caribbean, and in Indo-Pacific regions such as Papua New Guinea.

Art Crime — FBI

The FBI is returning more than 300 cultural artifacts to China years after they were part of a vast collection discovered at a central Indiana farm.

Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai is expected to attend Thursday's repatriation ceremony at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis when the 361 artifacts are returned to Chinese officials.

The artifacts were among thousands ranging from arrowheads to shrunken heads that federal agents removed in 2014 from a man's Shelby County farm.

That man, Don Miller, amassed the collection over several decades. He died in 2015 at age 91.

The FBI says artifacts have been returned to several countries, including Colombia, New Zealand and Spain, but it continues working with Native American tribes and foreign governments to determine their claims to any of the objects.

 

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