Wisconsin historians, police, and the popular PBS show, "Antiques Roadshow" are teaming up to help find more than 300 Native American artifacts - more than a decade after they were stolen.
The newest "Antiques Roadshow" episode highlights native relics taken from the Wisconsin Historical Museum between 1995 and 1999. They include items ranging from a Blackfoot bandolier bag to a Potawatomi bear claw necklace that a former employee stole - then sold - to private dealers and museums.
Anne Koski, the Wisconsin Historical Museum's former director, says the lifted artifacts could literally be anywhere in the world. After ex-curator David Wooley was convicted in 2001, he helped investigators recover 33 artifacts, but most remain missing.
Koski says they discovered in the recovery process just how fast and far artifacts travel in the world of collectors. A Potawatomi yarn bag Wooley sold to a Colorado dealer in New Mexico was in turn sold to a Michigan dealer, who then sold it to the Grand Rapids Public Museum.
The bag was ultimately returned to Wisconsin.
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Koski says she nearly fell out of her chair last year when an "Antiques Roadshow" producer asked if they had any stolen artifacts they could report on the program. And even though it's been years, Wisconsin Capitol Police detective Ed Bardon says now's the time to publicize the lost items. He says people who knowingly possess the stolen items don't sell or display them for some time, hoping people will forget they're stolen.
Bardon says anyone with information should contact him or the Wisconsin Historical Society. The Society Web site has descriptions and pictures of the stolen artifacts at www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/collections/object-recovery.asp .
