https://nypost.com/2019/02/27/fbi-finds-2000-ancient-human-bones-in-indiana-mans-house/
A man who ran an amateur museum out of his Indiana home kept a collection of thousands of stolen Native American bones, officials revealed this week.
Federal investigators probed the trove of 42,000 relics belonging to Don Miller, who died in in 2015, because they suspected many of the items were obtained in violation of antiquities laws.
But what they found was horrifying.
“About 2,000 human bones,” Tim Carpenter, who heads the FBI’s art crime unit, told CBS News on Tuesday.
“To the best of our knowledge right now, those 2,000 bones represent about 500 human beings.”
Nearly all of the remains had been dug up from Native American burial sites.
“It’s very staggering,” Carpenter said.
Asked why anyone would want to have that many human bones, Carpenter replied: “I don’t know. I truly don’t know.”
Until this week, officials had provided few details about the case into Miller’s collection, which includes pre-Columbian pottery, Ming Dynasty jade and an Egyptian sarcophagus.
Miller, a former Christian missionary and ham radio operator died in 2015 at 91.
But before his death, he admitted that he came by many of the relics illegally and that he had gone on unsanctioned archaeological digs all over the world, Carpenter said.
The FBI agent agreed that the objects should be returned to their proper homes.
The investigation into the collection is still ongoing. Experts anticipate it could take
A man who ran an amateur museum out of his Indiana home kept a collection of thousands of stolen Native American bones, officials revealed this week.
Federal investigators probed the trove of 42,000 relics belonging to Don Miller, who died in in 2015, because they suspected many of the items were obtained in violation of antiquities laws.
But what they found was horrifying.
“About 2,000 human bones,” Tim Carpenter, who heads the FBI’s art crime unit, told CBS News on Tuesday.
“To the best of our knowledge right now, those 2,000 bones represent about 500 human beings.”
Nearly all of the remains had been dug up from Native American burial sites.
“It’s very staggering,” Carpenter said.
Asked why anyone would want to have that many human bones, Carpenter replied: “I don’t know. I truly don’t know.”
Until this week, officials had provided few details about the case into Miller’s collection, which includes pre-Columbian pottery, Ming Dynasty jade and an Egyptian sarcophagus.
Miller, a former Christian missionary and ham radio operator died in 2015 at 91.
But before his death, he admitted that he came by many of the relics illegally and that he had gone on unsanctioned archaeological digs all over the world, Carpenter said.
The FBI agent agreed that the objects should be returned to their proper homes.
The investigation into the collection is still ongoing. Experts anticipate it could take