Ninety-nine pre-Columbian artifacts were returned to Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli by U.S. customs officials on Wednesday after an investigation that has lasted over a decade.
The items, mostly pottery and valued at approximately $100,000, had been smuggled into the country by a university professor in Oregon. The professor forfeited the artifacts in 2005 as a part of a plea deal.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton said the reason the repatriation is just now taking place is because of long delays in resolving the criminal case and processing the items.
"In Spanish there is an expression that says...justice sometimes comes a little late, but it comes," President Martinelli said at a news conference at ICE headquarters. "This is a very good day to celebrate the return of these ornaments."
Martinelli is in the United States on a visit to strengthen cooperation in areas of security and trade, and will meet with President Barack Obama on Thursday.
Referring to a discussion earlier on Wednesday with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as fruitful, Martinelli said, "we are very happy and very satisfied by not only receiving these ornaments, but by the excellent relationship and that special relationship that we have with the U.S."
Taken together, the artifacts represent a wide sample of most of the pottery styles in pre-Columbian Panama from the period A.D. 1 through 1500, according to an agency statement. Native American artisans made this type of pottery by hand and without the use of a throwing wheel.
U.S. authorities investigated the painting after the U.S. Customs Service received a tip from Panamanian investigators in 1998 that a Panama Canal Commission employee was smuggling pre-Columbian artifacts out of Panama into the United States.
Since 2007, ICE has returned around 2,300 cultural objects to 18 countries.