Christopher Columbus' New World discovery letter written in 1493 is returned to Italy

The United States has returned to Italy a letter written by Christopher Columbus in 1493 about his discovery of the New World that was stolen from a Florence library and unwittingly acquired by the Library of Congress.

The letter, an 8-page litany of Columbus’ impressions about the people, flora and fauna of the Americas that he had sent to Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, had been replaced at Florence’s Riccardiana library with a forgery that no one noticed until a few years ago.

The original, meanwhile, had been sold to a rare book collector in Switzerland in 1990, then purchased by another collector at a Christie’s auction in 1992 in New York.