Over 50 years ago, a musket from the Revolutionary War was stolen. It was recovered and donated to a museum in Philadelphia.

CNN
—

According to the FBI, a firearm from the Revolutionary War has now been found after being missing for more than 50 years and donated to a museum in Philadelphia.

The .78-caliber musket, stolen from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in October 1968, was donated to the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia on Monday after investigators seized the weapon earlier this year, according to a news release from the FBI’s Philadelphia office.

“This historic weapon from the American Revolution was taken and hidden from generations of Americans. Now, this priceless piece of American history will finally be on display again in its rightful place at the Museum of the American Revolution,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said in the press release.

The artifact was among several Revolutionary War-era items stolen in a series of thefts in the Valley Forge Park area in the 1960s and 1970s.

The investigation into the missing items began in 2009, and in April the FBI announced that several stolen weapons had been recovered and handed over to the Museum of the American Revolution.

“The firearms seized were part of a larger haul of items stolen in these robberies, for which little evidence has been found in the past as to the perpetrators,” the April press release said.

However, ten of the items looted from Valley Forge Park and other locations, including the recently returned musket, remained missing. In April, the FBI’s Philadelphia office and its partners asked the public for help in recovering these missing items.

“Shortly thereafter, the investigative team received a tip from a citizen who revealed the location of the musket,” the FBI said.

A detective with the Upper Merion Township Police Department in Pennsylvania told the FBI’s story to a historical firearms expert and a professional appraiser who had worked with the department on a previous case, a news release said.

The appraiser, Joel Bohy, recognized the musket from another occasion on which he had discovered it. He was aware of the rarity of this weapon and took a photograph of it.

“Only two more are known,” Bohy told FBI agents.

Using this tip, investigators were able to trace the musket back to a Maryland-based collector of antique firearms. According to investigators, the collector had nothing to do with the 1968 robbery and did not know that the musket had been stolen.

The collector voluntarily handed over the musket to the FBI’s Art Crime Team, according to a press release.

“Chubb, the insurer whose predecessor company paid the insurance claim in 1969, became the owner of the musket. The company donated it to the Museum of the American Revolution and signed the deed at the July 1 ceremony,” a press release said.

FBI investigators said they are continuing to search for other relics stolen from Valley Forge in 1968.