Investigators would not say whether the collector knew he was buying stolen goods, although Captain Brasili noted that “ecclesiastical objects were created to be in a church — a chalice in a home sounds off.”

Hundreds of the man’s artifacts were confiscated and compared with those in the database kept by the Carabinieri, which included the three Monteroduni treasures. Over 100 of them have been found to have been stolen, and agents are examining the others to determine their provenance.

As it happens, the first of these confiscated objects to come up as a match was the Monteroduni statue.

The statue, along with the shield and sword, was returned to Monteroduni on Sept. 29, the patron saint’s day. It was placed in a side chapel during Mass after the procession, but at nightfall Father Paulin retired it to “a safe place.”

“Clearly, we can’t leave things of value inside the church,” he said, “because there will always be scoundrels around.”