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Crime

In the modern era, the European discovery of North American became a proxy for conflicts between American Protestants and Catholics, as well as northern Europeans who claimed Vikings like Leif Eriksson (left) as their ancestors and southern Europeans who touted links to Columbus (right) and the monarchs of Spain.

Viking Map of North America Identified as 20th-Century Forgery

New technical analysis dates Yale’s Vinland Map to the 1920s or later, not the 1440s as previously suggested

Hobby Lobby acquired the cuneiform tablet for display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

Smuggled Gilgamesh Dream Tablet Returns to Iraq

Forfeited by Hobby Lobby in July, the ancient artifact will be repatriated in a ceremony held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian

Italian artist Girolamo di Tommaso da Treviso created the ceremonial shield around 1535.

Ornate Medieval Shield Looted by the Nazis Will Be Returned to the Czech Republic

Created in the 16th century, the intricately decorated piece of armor was once owned by Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Two looted gold coins recovered from a home in Bnei Brak

Israeli Investigators Seize Ancient Coins Looted From Archaeological Sites

The stolen artifacts were found in the Bnei Brak home of an individual suspected of antiquities trafficking

The thieves attempted to steal De Voorzaan en de Westerhem, an 1871 painting by Claude Monet.

Thieves Attempt to Steal a Monet From a Dutch Museum—but Drop It Mid-Escape

The would-be robbers tried to take an 1871 landscape by the French Impressionist from the Zaans Museum in Zaandam

A vandal covered this mural of a rat sipping a cocktail in white spray paint.

Banksy Murals in England Defaced, Removed Just Days After Appearing

Vandals targeted two scenes in the street artist’s latest series. Local officials covered up two others

Officers Paul Douglas (left) and Theodore Santos (right) stand with their newest Covid-19 K9 unit: a female black lab named Huntah (left) and a male golden lab-retriever mix, Duke (right).

Covid-19

Massachusetts Becomes First U.S. State to Enlist Covid-Sniffing Canines

Duke and Huntah are first dogs used by law enforcement to detect coronavirus cases

The Maple Fire photographed burning up Jefferson Ridge in Olympic National Forest, Washington. In court documents, prosecutors alleged that men convicted of illegal logging in the National Forest may have started the Maple Fire.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

For the First Time, Tree DNA Was Used to Convict Lumber Thieves in Federal Investigation

Genetic evidence showed that two men illegally chopped down and sold valuable bigleaf maple trees inside Olympic National Forest

The U.S. Third Army discovers Édouard Manet’s The Winter Garden in the salt mines at Merkers on April 25, 1945.

When the Monuments Men Pushed Back Against the U.S. to Protect Priceless Art

A new show spotlights the scholars who protested the controversial, post-war American tour of 202 German-owned artworks

Tourists head into the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum in Fall River, Massachusetts in 2015, when it was under its previous ownership.

With the Borden Murder House in New Hands, Will Real History Get the Hatchet?

For the amateur detectives who are still trying to solve the case, the recent developments are causing consternation

Visionary executive William Barstow Strong led the second transcontinental line, the Santa Fe, in the 1880s, paving the way for thousands of miles of track.

How the Santa Fe Railroad Changed America Forever

The golden spike made the newspapers. But another railroad made an even bigger difference to the nation

Authorities have returned the illegally transported artifacts to their home country of Italy.

Officials Seize 782 Ancient Artifacts Acquired Illicitly by Single Belgian Collector

The trove of treasures, including a funerary slab, amphorae and pottery dated to pre-Roman times, is worth an estimated $13 million

Richard Henry Pratt, founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, poses alongside students around 1900.

Remains of Ten Native American Children Who Died at Government Boarding School Return Home After 100 Years

The deceased were students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, whose founder’s motto was “kill the Indian, and save the man”

People who reopened graves might take items like swords and brooches but leave more valuable objects untouched.

Cool Finds

Why Did Early Medieval Europeans Reopen Graves?

Contrary to some assumptions, the removal of objects from burial sites was not typically motivated by greed

His exposés of New York City slums would “send a chill to any heart,” wrote Jacob Riis, who also covered crime.

A Sensational Murder Case That Ended in a Wrongful Conviction

The role of famed social reformer Jacob Riis in overturning the verdict prefigured today’s calls for restorative justice

Researchers rarely discover physical evidence of slavery in the Roman Empire.

Shackled Skeleton Reflects Brutal Reality of Slavery in Roman Britain

An enslaved man buried in England between 226 and 427 A.D. was interred with heavy iron fetters and a padlock around his ankles

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti leave jail at Dedham, Mass., en route to the courthouse where they are to be sentenced by Judge Webster Thayer to die in the electric chair.

Sacco and Vanzetti’s Trial of the Century Exposed Injustice in 1920s America

The pair’s path to becoming media sensations began 100 years ago. To this day the two remain emblems of prejudice in the American justice system

Rosary beads and Bible belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots, pictured at Arundel Castle in January 1968. Authorities recently announced the rosary's theft from the English stronghold.

Rosary Beads Owned by Mary, Queen of Scots, Stolen in Heist at English Castle

The Stuart monarch may have carried the golden beads—taken last Friday in a $1.4-million burglary—to her execution in 1587

A gangster, civil rights advocate, fashionista and businesswoman, St. Clair successfully took on one of the biggest crime bosses of the era.

Women Who Shaped History

Stephanie St. Clair, Harlem’s ‘Numbers Queen,’ Dominated the Gambling Underground and Made Millions

In the 1930s, the enigmatic figure ran an illegal lottery while championing New York City’s Black community

One of the six recovered frescoes depicts a dancing cherub.

Six Stolen Frescoes Returned to Pompeii

Between the 1970s and 2012, looters stole elegant artworks from two villas neighboring the famed ancient settlement

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