(NewsNation) — Nearly four decades after President Theodore Roosevelt’s watch was stolen from an exhibition, an auctioneer stumbled across the commander’s curio on the opposite side of the country.
The Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, where Roosevelt lived, loaned the sentimental pocket watch to the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in 1971 for an exhibition. In July 1987, somebody stole the antique timekeeper from the site.
An incredible 36 years later, the watch appeared at a Florida auction house. The auctioneer, believing it to be a genuine piece of history, contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the National Park Service to get it confirmed.
The result? The watch was identified as one gifted to the 26th president by his youngest sister, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, and his brother-in-law, Douglas Robinson, Jr., before he left to fight in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Both FBI and NPS officials identified it as the stolen watch from decades before.
Special Agent Robert Giczy, a member of the FBI Art Crime Team, commended the teamwork taken in returning the watch to Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.
“NPS does a great job in enforcing and recovering our national property … This partnership ensured that this historic treasure could be returned safely for future generations to enjoy,” he said.
A repatriation ceremony in New York returned the watch to its rightful home Thursday, just a few days shy of its 37th year missing.