The FBI, along with partners from the Department of Justice and the Upper Merion Township Police Department (UMTPD) in Pennsylvania, recently helped recover stolen Revolutionary War-era U.S. firearms that were a part of a string of thefts in the 1960s and 1970s in and around Valley Forge Park. The items were returned during a repatriation ceremony held at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. The recovered firearms were among a wider swath of items looted during these robberies, for which little evidence as to the perpetrators had been uncovered in the past. 

"We were all committed to seeing justice—not just bringing the objects back home, but seeking a proper prosecution of those who perpetrated these crimes," said Special Agent Jake Archer, a member of the FBI’s Art Crime Team who worked this case for FBI Philadelphia. 

The Bureau’s role in this investigation was multipronged, Archer said. "We brought our investigative labor, first and foremost," he explained. "Secondly, we brought our multijurisdictional apparatus where we could cover leads in other parts of the country in a fast and orderly fashion. As well, we brought forth our evidence-response capabilities and that art crime-specific knowledge of how these cases should be investigated, and how the objects should be cared for."

Since the investigation into these thefts started in 2009, three men—Michael Corbett, Scott Corbett, and Thomas Gavin— have admitted taking items from the park and from the Valley Forge Historical Society located within Washington Memorial Chapel and helped investigators locate stolen items. 

But the whereabouts of 10 additional items that these men, and perhaps other individuals, were involved in looting—from Valley Forge Park and elsewhere—remain unknown. Now, FBI Philadelphia and our partners are seeking the public’s help in tracking them down. 

Their next task was determining who might’ve been responsible for the thefts. 

“So, we started: Two detectives with a diaper box filled with files that Scott Stephenson and the Museum of the American Revolution were generous enough to give us,” Rathfon said.  

The detectives traveled to multiple states to interview anyone who may have information. The more people they interviewed, though, the more they realized the case required outside resources and expertise to solve.  

At this point, they had the name of one potential perpetrator—Michael Corbett. But an outreach attempt failed, and he declined to speak with detectives or to accept immunity in the case, explained Assistant U.S. Attorney K.T. Newton, who handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  

Since the detectives didn’t have the out-of-state jurisdiction needed to investigate—Michael Corbett lived in Delaware—they spoke with Corbett’s brother, Scott.  

After receiving immunity in the case, Scott Corbett told authorities that his brother had stolen multiple firearms from multiple museums and that he himself had participated in some of those thefts, too. Scott Corbett suspected that his brother either had the items in his possession or was storing them in a safe deposit box.  

At this juncture, the detectives approached the FBI Art Crime Team and the U.S. Attorney’s Office about collaborating on the investigation, especially since the teamwork would solve their jurisdictional hurdles. 

The FBI Art Crime Team generally investigates three major types of violations: theft, frauds and forgeries, and the illicit trafficking of cultural property. “Detectives Dougherty and Rathfon had done such a great job, already getting this case underway, and once we realized that this was certainly a multi-jurisdictional matter involving many, many important pieces of American history, we realized that we had to join in and act,” explained Special Agent Archer.  

A federal warrant was obtained to search Michael Corbett’s Delaware residence. And while they found multiple firearms, none of them were the stolen ones the authorities had been searching for.  

Now, investigators had to determine what these items were and where they had been stolen from.  

Some of these answers came from Scott Corbett, AUSA Newton said. “He had a very good memory and could tell us where Michael had stolen some of the firearms,” she noted. 

The investigative team also traveled to Cody, Wyoming, to attend a national museum curator’s meeting to see if any experts could help identify these mystery items. 

“It turns out Michael stole these items from museums from Massachusetts to as far south as Mississippi,” Newton said. "A lot of them were stolen from Pennsylvania. We believe he was responsible for two of the thefts at Valley Forge. He was also responsible for a theft at the U.S. Army War College Museum in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. So, we were able to identify some of these firearms.” 

Based on the evidence at hand, AUSA Newton explained, “We couldn't charge him with the thefts, but what we could charge him with was possession of stolen property that had been transported interstate because he's in Delaware.”  

Michael Corbett was indicted and pleaded guilty. As part of his plea, he agreed to help recover some of the items that the investigators were initially looking for when they searched his Delaware residence.  

“Leads in the Corbett case took the FBI Art Crime Team as far west as San Francisco,” Archer added. 

Coincidentally, during the investigation, a concerned collector called Dr. Stephenson because he believed he might’ve accidentally purchased a stolen rifle. 

The collector initially purchased the gun from a man named Thomas Gavin, believing it to be a copy of a famous rifle built by Moravian gunsmith John Christian Oerter. But the more he researched, the more he suspected he had the genuine article. The collector turned the rifle over to the authorities. 

Thomas Gavin turned out to be “a significant museum thief” in his own right, having robbed items from the Valley Forge Park, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, and additional museums in the greater Philadelphia area. “But he too cooperated and told us what he had stolen,” AUSA Newton said. 

“We had to then stop, solve that case in order to figure out who stole what from where, in order to then pick the Corbett case back up and bring it home,” Archer recalled of the Gavin section of the overall investigation. “So, it was staggeringly complex across space and time and material.” 

But just like in Corbett’s case, investigators are still searching for items that Gavin stole, including a rifle that was once owned by naturalist John James Audubon. 

Even though the investigators’ work is ongoing, the impact of the partnership and the recovery of the artifacts cannot be overstated. 

“With the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution coming up,” said James Taub, an associate curator at the museum, “the teamwork and partnership between local police and the FBI have given us in Philadelphia and the historical community at large a really strong opportunity to reach people in ways that we haven't before, through objects that people of my generation haven't seen and that previous generations might not have seen since before the 200th anniversary of the American Revolution.” 

Dr. Stephenson echoed that sentiment, noting that “for us, as educator- and preservation-oriented institutions, these objects are irreplaceable.” 

Stephenson says the museum’s work isn’t done. “It may be that the person who stole an object say 50 years ago may have passed away long ago. In many cases, families may have things that they don't realize where they came from, how they came into that collection, or things that were sold and passed around.”  

For this reason, he said, the museum is reexamining how it describes the missing objects, to highlight any valuable details that might spark someone’s memory. The museum is also spreading the word about the stolen items to antique enthusiasts and collectors. 

"The fact is, the vast majority of people want to do the right thing,” he said. 

But the FBI stands ready to investigate anyone who knowingly holds onto looted artifacts. 

“Ultimately,” said Special Agent Archer, “people who know that they are in possession of these stolen items and do the wrong thing, we certainly are prepared to investigate.”