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The image, an ink, tempera and gold image of a haloed Saint
Lucy, had spent decades at the Cleveland Museum of Art, which
bought it in good faith in 1952, the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency said in a statement.
It said the artifact was turned over in a ceremony at the
Italian Embassy.
A two-year investigation determined that the item, a leaf of the
book, had been stolen and the museum turned it over to U.S.
officials last month after another stolen leaf from the same
book turned up in the Swiss market. That leaf has also been
returned to Italy.
The Cleveland leaf, which measures about 17.4 inches (44.3 cm)
by 13.9 inches (35.2 cm), was taken from a page in an
illuminated parchment antiphonary, a type of hymnal, created
around 1340. Known as Codex D, the manuscript is in a museum in
Castelfiorentino, near Florence.
The customs agency did not say how or when the leaf had been
stolen.
In addition to the manuscript leaf, U.S. officials repatriated a
19th century painting by artist Consalvo Carelli that had been
stolen from a home in Naples in 2001.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott Malone and Grant
McCool)
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