TPC Carabinieri return Roman-era silver coin to Pesaro's Ente Olivieri stolen in 1978

Carabinieri from Ancona’s Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Culturale returned to the director ofPesaro’s Ente Olivieri the silver coin from the Roman period (I-II century AD) known as the"contour of Trajan." The return took place at the inauguration of Ente Olivieri’s new offices, as part of the closing ceremony of Pesaro Capital of Culture 2024.

The coin had been stolen between Feb. 27 and 28, 1978, from the museum of the Ente of the same name. The activity of the Carabinieri TPC, which enabled the recovery of the valuable numismatic asset, originated from information provided in 2016 by the then Director of the Ente Olivieri - Oliveriani Library and Museums, from which it emerged that the Manager of the “Numismatist Classical Group” of Lancaster (USA) had received, for sale at auction, a coin “contoured of Trajan” which, from initial research, turned out to belong precisely to the census collection of the Pesaro museum.

Through the investigations made by the Ancona TPC Unit, also with the help of scholars who are experts in the field, it was possible to confirm that the coin published for auction was the one recorded in the inventory of the Oliverian Museum. Removed in February 1978, the coin’s image was listed as an asset to be searched in the “Data Bank of Illicitly Misappropriated Cultural Assets,” the largest computerized archive at the investigative level managed exclusively by the Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Command.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Pesaro, having received the communication on the location of the stolen property and the investigative findings, issued in 2017 a request for international judicial assistance in criminal matters, sent through ministerial channels to the Judicial Authority of Philadelphia (USA), with a request to seize the coin. In 2018, the U.S. judiciary executed the measure requested by the Italian Prosecutor’s Office, and in consideration of the good faith of the possessor, who did not oppose any claim to the return of the coin, in December 2023 the “contorniato di Traiano” returned to Italy.

TPC Carabinieri return Roman-era silver coin to Pesaro's Ente Olivieri stolen in 1978

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