Ancient Roman Gravestone Returns to Italy After 80 Years

When Daniella Santoro and her husband Aaron Lorenz cleared weeds behind their New Orleans home last year, they never expected to find a piece of ancient Rome.

Hidden beneath overgrown vines sat a marble slab with Latin inscriptions. The couple wondered if their house had been built over a forgotten cemetery.

What they'd actually discovered was far more remarkable. The stone was a gravestone for Sextus Congenius Verus, a 42-year-old Roman sailor who served 22 years aboard a ship called the Asclepius around the second century. It had been missing from Italy's National Archaeological Museum in Civitavecchia for decades.

Santoro, an anthropologist at Tulane University, contacted local archaeologist Ryan Gray for help. Gray shared photos with experts in Austria and the United States who confirmed the discovery. The inscription matched a stone listed as missing from the Italian museum.

The mystery of how it reached New Orleans solved itself when news spread. Erin Scott O'Brien, who previously owned the house, recognized the stone from photos. It had belonged to her grandparents, who displayed it in their home.

Her grandfather, Charles Paddock, met her Italian grandmother Adele while serving in World War II. The Allies had bombed Civitavecchia during the war, devastating the museum. The stone likely disappeared in the chaos, though exactly how her grandparents acquired it remains unknown.

O'Brien had inherited the gravestone and placed it in her garden, never knowing its significance. When she sold the house in 2018, she'd forgotten about it entirely. "I had no idea it was a 2,000-year-old relic," she said. "It's wonderful that it's going back to where it belongs."

The family contacted the FBI's Art Crime Team, and on April 29, American officials returned the gravestone to Italy along with more than 300 other artifacts. The collection included a first-century head of Alexander the Great, a satyr from Herculaneum, Egyptian statues, Byzantine coins, and Greek ceramics.

Why This Inspires

This story shows what happens when curiosity meets integrity. Santoro and her husband could have kept their unusual garden ornament. O'Brien could have stayed silent when she recognized the stone. Instead, they chose to do the right thing.

Their decision means a soldier's memorial, crafted by grieving loved ones two millennia ago, will return to the museum near where he lived and died. Students and visitors can now learn his story again.

"When stolen art returns, both nations benefit," said Tilman Fertitta, the American ambassador to Italy. "Italy regains its history, and the United States reaffirms its commitment to justice and cultural preservation."

The gravestone will soon be displayed again at the National Archaeological Museum in Civitavecchia, just 40 miles from ancient Rome where Sextus Congenius Verus once lived.