PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Brown University spokesman says a Virginia antiques collector has turned over a Civil War-era sword that was stolen from the Ivy League school in the 1970s.

Last week, a federal judge in Virginia ordered Williamsburg collector Donald Tharpe to surrender the Tiffany silver sword to Brown. Tharpe bought it for $35,000 in 1992 after it had passed among dealers for years.

A Brown spokesman told The Providence Journal (http://bit.ly/pX8RJW ) on Monday that Tharpe has given the sword to a Virginia attorney who represented the university, and it's being shipped to Providence.

Brown officials say the sword was stolen from the Annmary Brown Memorial at the school. The sword was given to her husband, Col. Rush Hawkins, in 1863 for his service to the Union during the Civil War.