Federal agents have recovered a 126-year-old pocket watch belonging to 26th U.S. President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt that was stolen 37 years ago, authorities announced Thursday.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Park Service (NPS) agents retrieved the presidential item from a Florida auction house in 2023 after the auctioneer suspected the watch may have belonged to President Roosevelt. Said.
According to the statement, President Roosevelt's youngest sister, Collin Roosevelt Robinson, and brother-in-law, Douglas Robinson Jr., gave him the silver watch. Inscribed on the inside of the watch's top case are “THEODORE ROOSEVELT FROM DR & CRR.”
They gave the watch to Roosevelt in 1898, and the then-warlord took it with him to the famous Battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War, which fought for Cuban independence from Spain, according to the NPS. SaidIt is said that Roosevelt later took the watch with him as he traveled across Africa and the Amazon River.
NPS Sagamore Hill National Historic Site The museum, which served as President Roosevelt's “Summer White House” from 1885 until his death in 1919, kept the clock after President Roosevelt's death. They kept it for six years. Theodore Roosevelt Inauguration National Historic Site, Another National Park Service museum located on the site where President Roosevelt was inaugurated after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. The clock was stolen on July 21, 1987 from the museum where it was on display during an extended loan.
The watch was never found again until an auctioneer in Florida was asked to put it up for auction. The auctioneer believed the watch belonged to Roosevelt and contacted Sagamore Hill National Historic Site and Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site. Both agencies then contacted the National Police Agency, which recovered the watch. The National Police Agency then contacted the FBI's Art Crimes Team, which assisted in the seizure, confiscation and return of the watch during a ceremony to return it to Sagamore Hill National Historic Site on Thursday, the FBI said in a statement. (Related article: Theodore Roosevelt's “nightstand gun” goes up for auction for big price)
Florida Auctioneer He was identified by The Associated Press. Edwin Bailey, owner of Blackwell Auctions in Clearwater, Florida. Bailey told The Associated Press that the consignor of the watch was an art dealer and collector in Buffalo in the 1970s and '80s but didn't know the watch's provenance. An antiques collector had reportedly given the watch to the consignor as collateral to finance a loan for his antiques collection, but one day never returned for the watch. The consignor later learned that the collector had died.
As FBI Special Agent Robert Gizzi explained about the watch's origins in an FBI statement, the watch was manufactured by the Waltham Watch Company, which was the first mass producer of American-made watches in the 1850s but went out of business in 1949. according to A first class watch.
The repatriation ceremony, held at the Sagamore Museum in New York, was attended by representatives of the National Park Service and the FBI, as well as members of the Roosevelt family, according to a statement.
Special Agent Gitche called the watch “our national treasure” and praised the cooperation of the National Park Service and the FBI “in ensuring the safe return of this historic treasure for future generations to enjoy.”
FBI Deputy Director of the Criminal Investigation Division Michael Nordwall called the watch a “masterpiece of American culture.”
According to Jonathan Parker, director of Sagamore Hill National Historical Park, this “keeper of the legend” was “literally a participant in a historic event.”
National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said it is an honor to play a role in preserving America's history and expressed his gratitude for the “spirit of preservation.”
“This was wonderful news,” Tweed Roosevelt, Roosevelt's 82-year-old great-grandson, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press on Friday. “To me, it was as if a part of TR's soul had returned to Sagamore Hill. It was as if a part of him had returned. So, it just felt so wonderful.”
