[MSN] FBI finds majority of artifacts stolen in January from the Cabazon Cultural Museum in Indio

[msn-list at te.verweg.com]

FBI finds majority of artifacts
 
staff reports
The Desert Sun
May 17, 2005 


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The FBI has recovered 14 of the 17 valuable Native American artifacts stolen
in January from the Cabazon Cultural Museum in Indio.
That because, according to Joseph Stuart, the FBI's senior resident agent in
Palm Springs, "a concerned citizen was able to locate them and called me and
we recovered them."

Stuart said that no charges had been filed in connection with the
disappearance of the Native American baskets and pottery pieces worth more
than $100,000 and the concerned citizen's identity is remaining
confidential.

"We recovered everything Sunday," Stuart said in a telephone interview
Monday.

"I still don't know who stole them. This is the recovery aspect of it, not
the criminal charging of it." The pieces were recovered locally, Stuart
said, but did not specify an exact location.

There's an ongoing investigation into who burglarized the museum early on
the morning of Jan. 11, Stuart said.

The back door of the museum was breached and the cases were broken.

The intruders made off with pottery that is Hopi, Pueblo and Zuni in origin
and all of the pieces are anywhere from 100 to 150 years old.

The baskets and the pottery had been on display since the museum opened
nearly three years ago.

All eight of the baskets stolen were Cahuilla and the Cabazons are members
of the Cahuilla tribe. All but one of the baskets taken were on loan from
the California State Resource Museum.

The baskets are roughly from the same time period, between 1890 and 1920 or
1930.

The baskets and the pottery had been on display since the museum opened
nearly three years ago.

All but one of the baskets taken were on loan from the California State
Resource Museum. One was on loan from the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla
Indians and the pottery was on loan from a private individual, Stuart said.

"They are irreplaceable," Sandy MacLeod, curator for the state museum told
The Desert Sun in February. "They're one of a kind."

Three pieces - two pieces of pottery and one basket belonging to the state
of California Parks Department - are still missing.

"That particular basket that we did not recover is a nontraditional design,"
Stuart said. "They call it a 'basketry bowl,' Cahuilla but nontraditional."

Two pottery pieces - both earthenware with no designs on them - are still
missing as well. One is a three-legged bowl and the other is an earthenware
vessel.

"I notified the legal owners of all the property that we recovered and they
are ecstatic. If you just lose money, you lose money. These are
irreplaceable and are cultural artifacts. When they learned that these items
were recovered, they were very happy," Stuart said.

"Not just the Agua Caliente but the Cabazon tribe because these things were
all on loan."

The FBI was involved in the investigation, Stuart said, because "there's a
specific federal law that has to do with taking something from a museum."
Items from a recognized museum, items worth a specific amount or items of
cultural significance all fall under that law, he said.

The U.S. Attorney's office and the Cabazon tribe requested that the FBI get
involved, Stuart, who has been at the Palm Springs office since 1989, said.