US woman returns ancient Roman marble she stole in 2017, seeks forgiveness

In an unexpected package received by the management of the National Roman Museum, the authorities found an ancient roman marble inscribed with a message ‘To Sam, love Jess, Rome 2017’. Along with the relic, there was also a letter by a woman called Jess who sought forgiveness for a “big mistake”. As per the Guardian report, the US woman regretted stealing the artefact from an Italian cultural site and even tried to remove the inscribed message but remained unsuccessful. 

As per reports, it is still unclear from where the US woman had taken the marble but it could have been from the site of the Roman Forum which was also the political centre of the Roman empire. Following receiving the package, the director of the National Roman Museum, Stephane Verger told a newspaper that the package was sent from Atlanta Georgia. In the letter, Jess had written that she felt terrible “for not only stealing this item from its rightful place but placing writing on it.”

The American woman reportedly went on to write in the letter that “it was a big mistake” on her side and as an adult, she realises “just how thoughtless and despicable” the deed was. The message on the ancient marble was also written with a black marker pen. Verger also said that with the tone of the letter, he assumed that it was a young woman. 

As per the director of the National Roman Museum’s assumption, the US woman must have visited Rome in 2017 and took back a fragment of the marble in order to gift it to her partner. Verger also told the newspaper in an interview that it made an impact on him because according to him Jess is young and “she understood that she had made a mistake”. 

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Jess sent the package after Canada woman

Jess is only the latest woman to have returned an ancient artefact that was ‘stolen’. Prior to this, in October, a Canadian woman called Nicole had sent back fragments stolen from the ancient city of Pompeii at least 15 years ago and claim that it was “cursed”. This week’s incident involving Jess has reportedly also led the museum’s management to wonder if it was encouraged by Nicole that had caused a stir.

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Nicole had reportedly sent a package containing two mosaic tiles that were parts of an amphora and a piece of ceramic to a travel agent in southern Italy with a letter of confession detailing how she stole it in her early 20s. However, the Canadian woman blamed her misfortune since then on the marbles.

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