PORTLAND (AP) — The government of Panama has regained custody of more than 100 artifacts that were illegally removed from the country and stored in southern Oregon.

FBI officials returned the items, some nearly 1,000 years old, to the Panamanian government at a ceremony Tuesday in Washington D.C.

“The people of Panama have been deprived of the ability to view these unique items, part of their cultural heritage, and the FBI is pleased to play a role in returning them to the government of Panama today,” said Daniel Roberts, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.

According to a search warrant affidavit, the artifacts — pottery and some gold items — were unearthed by John Shaw while he was teaching at a U.S. military base in Panama in the 1980s, The Oregonian newspaper reported.

The affidavit said he and wife, a Panama native, took the items out of the country in the late 1980s. The couple ended up in Klamath Falls, where they owned the Pelican Pawn Shop.

Though the couple held on to more than 100 items, they sold others at markets and on the Internet, the FBI said.

It’s illegal to take antiquities out of Panama, based on that country’s constitution and a 1982 law.

John Shaw died of a heart attack in October 2004. The FBI received a tip about the artifacts from an ex-boyfriend of the widow. The man said he watched a television program about Panamanian artifacts and learned it was illegal to own them.

The man told authorities he stored most of the items in a trailer at his business as collateral for a loan he made to the widow, Fatima Shaw.

The FBI said Fatima Shaw, 46, willingly handed over the items, and no charges are expected.