Tutu’s peace prize stolen, recovered

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Archbishop Desmond Tutu was stolen in a burglary at the clergyman’s Soweto home but later recovered, police said Monday.

Another award of significant value recovered was a “golden key” to the city of Sacramento, Calif., Gauteng police spokeswoman Superintendent Thembi Nkwashu told the South African Press Association.

Nkwashu said the archbishop’s house in Orlando West was broken into on Sunday morning and a TV, DVD player, clothing and gold brooches and a wedding band taken. Tutu is currently in Switzerland. He has another residence in Cape Town but the Soweto house is considered his family home.

Lavinia Crawford-Browne, Tutu’s spokesman, said the archbishop had been told about the burglary and the subsequent recovery of the items.

“It is amazing and wonderful that the Nobel medallion has been recovered and the archbishop is absolutely thrilled,” she said.

Five men were later arrested after they were found in possession of the stolen goods.

The house in Vilakazi Street is famous for being home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners – Tutu and former president Nelson Mandela.

Tutu, 75, chaired South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was intended to expose the full horrors of apartheid and help the country heal the wounds of its violent past.

He was awarded the Nobel in 1994.