Centuries-old copy of Christopher Columbus letter stolen from Vatican found in US

A centuries old copy of a Christopher Columbus letter has been recovered and it will make its way back to its home, the Vatican.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the historic document was discovered by American investigators and it dates back 500 years.

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The letter describing Columbus’ first voyage to the New World was stolen from the Vatican and replaced with a fake. The date of the forgery or the thief is still unknown.

But the rare copy of the 1493 letter was found as part of a private collection owned by Robert Parsons, an Atlanta actuary, and collector of old travel writing. Mr. Parsons passed away but his widow has agreed to return the letter to the Vatican.

Investigators at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security tracked the letter after receiving a tip and discovered Parsons spent $875,000 for the crown jewel of his collection of rare books about early exploration of the Americas. He had purchased it from a rare-book dealer in New York in 2004, not knowing that it had been stolen.

We’re sure the Pope is very thankful!