Huge artifact theft revealed
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Hoping to solve an archeological crime after more than two decades, the University of Alabama has revealed a major 1980 theft of Indian artifacts.
Jim Knight, chairman of anthropology at the Tuscaloosa campus, said that the disappearance of 264 pottery vessels, dating back 800 years, was the largest recorded antiquities theft in the South.
Knight said the theft, from a storage building at the university’s Moundville archeological site, was never made public; only a brief notice was placed in a scholarly journal. The university said the stolen items were appraised in 1980 at $1 million.
Knight hopes that publicizing the crime will lead to the recovery of the items.
From Associated Press
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