Holy reliquaries, including relics of Saint Nicholas — who inspired Santa Claus — were confiscated by Canadian border services and returned to Italy after a Winnipeg man tried to illegally import them.
A brass and glass medallion, a wooden statuette depicting the saint and a glass tube containing bone fragments, along with documents proving the object’s authenticity, were given back to Italian authorities on Wednesday, the Canadian government said in a news release.
The objects were intercepted in February and June of 2020 after a man bought the reliquaries through eBay for a total of nearly $3,300 US. Canada border officers screening the courier imports in Winnipeg believed the objects were foreign cultural property that may have violated the Cultural Property Export and Import Act.
The onus is on the dealer, collector, institution or the public at large to obtain information related to importing or exporting and comply with procedures for objects that may be considered cultural property, a spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency said in an email on Sunday.
The agency referred the reliquaries to be further examined by the federal government’s Canadian Heritage department, which included expert evaluations and consultations with Italian authorities who confirmed the relics were protected property and must be returned.
In March 2021, the Attorney General of Canada ordered a motion for the three objects to be recovered to Italy, according to a court decision by federal court judge Roger Lafrenière.
The court ruling found the man didn’t have an export permit or information on the authenticity of the reliquaries, which he believed were forgeries that he planned to donate to his church.
The man was required to pay the Attorney General of Canada more than $2,200 to cover the costs of the motion, the court decision said.
Tomb of the saint
The reliquaries contain bone fragments of Saint Nicholas de Myra who was born in southern Turkey during the third century, was elected Bishop of Myra and dedicated his life to helping those less fortunate, according to history shared by the Vatican.
He inspired the tradition of gift-giving in some European countries on the saint’s feast day, as children would leave socks or shoes out on the eve of the feast hoping they would be filled with gifts come dawn.
After his death, his tomb at Myra became a place of pilgrimage. Most of his relics are now located in a tomb in the crypt of the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari, Italy where they have rested since 1087, according to the Saint Nicholas center, a virtual resource sharing information on Saint Nicholas.
The recovery of his relics marks the first time Canada has returned cultural property to Italy although Canada has previously returned cultural property to 14 different countries around the world as a part of its promise under the 1970 UNESCO Convention, the federal government said.
Canada and Italy have mutual obligations under the legislation to assist each other in the return of any cultural property possessing artistic, historical, archaeological or ethno-anthropological value that has been illegally imported or exported.
Canadian and Italian government officials and cultural heritage experts joined in an event on Wednesday to mark the return of the reliquaries and discuss strategies to combat art-related crimes, including illicit trafficking and theft.
Steven Guilbeault, the minister of Canadian Culture and Identity, said Canada is committed to strengthening international collaboration to combat these crimes that threaten a country’s heritage, according to the release.
The Italian ambassador to Canada H. E. Alessandro Cattaneo said the return of the objects is a leap forward for the partnering countries.
