Woman returns rock taken from Rome 25 years ago

A North Carolina woman who returned a chunk of ancient Rome to Italian authorities 25 years after her husband pocketed it said she never felt comfortable keeping the terra cotta fragment, but her eldest son's death prompted her to set things right.

"Whenever I looked at it, I'd feel bad about it," said Janice Johnsen, 52, of Greensboro. "Then, a little over a year ago, our oldest son was killed suddenly. Since then, we've been struggling with some hard things. The pocketed fragment "kept nagging at me," she said. She decided "if we get in trouble, we get in trouble, but I need to return it."

Johnsen didn't tell her husband, Mike, about her decision until after she had returned the artifact. She mailed it anonymously, but put her return address on the package.



The couple was visiting Italy about 25 years ago while on a trip for Mike's new job. He bent over and picked up the fist-sized fragment of a slab of terra cotta near the Colosseum, putting it in his pocket. It then sat on a shelf with their other travel souvenirs.

In the letter, signed only "an American citizen," Johnsen wrote that she and her husband picked up the fragment "as a spontaneous souvenir from nearby the Colosseum" on a trip some 25 years ago. My husband and I apologize for our thoughtless and selfish act," Johnsen wrote, requesting that the piece be put back at the Colosseum "so it may again be at rest back where it belongs."

It is a crime in Italy to illegally export ancient artifacts. Rome has been cracking down on archaeological theft, including prosecuting art dealers suspected of clandestine trafficking in artifacts.