Overview

• Daniella Santoro and Aaron Lorenz uncovered the marble tablet in their New Orleans backyard in March and sought expert help after noticing a Latin inscription.
• Scholars authenticated it as a circa second-century funerary marker for Sextus Congenius Verus, identified as a Roman sailor.
• Archival research linked the slab to 1860s excavations and to an item recorded missing from the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Civitavecchia after a 1943 bombing.
• Erin Scott O’Brien said the tablet had been displayed in her grandparents’ New Orleans home and later served as a garden ornament she left behind when moving in 2018.
• The artifact is now with the FBI Art Crime Team as arrangements proceed to return it to Italy in line with modern repatriation practices.