Remorseful and anonymous, an American couple has mailed back a chunk of ancient Rome to Italian authorities about 25 years after their Roman holiday. Janice Johnsen, 52, of Greensboro, North Carolina, said Thursday she never felt comfortable keeping the terra cotta fragment, but her eldest son's death prompted her to set things right. “Whenever I looked at it, I'd feel bad about it,” she said. “Then, a little over a year ago, our oldest son was killed suddenly. Since then, we've been struggling with some hard things.” The pocketed fragment “kept nagging at me,” she said. She decided “if we get in trouble, we get in trouble, but I need to return it.” Johnsen didn't tell her husband, Mike, about her decision until after she had returned the artifact. She mailed it anonymously, but put her return address on the package. The couple was visiting Italy about 25 years ago while on a trip for Mike's new job. He bent over and picked up the fist-sized fragment of a slab of terra cotta near the Colosseum, putting it in his pocket. The return came to light Thursday, when Rome's archaeological office said it had received the package. The archaeological office, which examined the chunk, said “the gesture of returning the piece by the US couple is still important.” Much of Rome's historic center is littered withsuch fragments. It is a crime in Italy to illegally export ancient artifacts.
