A sheet of piano music stolen from Memorial University in St. John's was among over 1,000 rare antique items found in a home in Nova Scotia earlier this week. (CBC)

An artifact that was stolen from Memorial University in St. John's has been found in a home in Fall River, N.S.

RCMP in Nova Scotia said they found over 1,000 artifacts and antiques at the home of John Mark Tillmann.

Amongst the found items was a sheet of piano music that was stolen from MUN.

Tillmann, 51, has been charged with four counts of possession of stolen property. He has been in jail since police arrested him last Friday.

On Friday, the police showcased some of the rare books, antiques, documents, paintings, and other items that were seized from the home just outside Halifax.

RCMP suspect the collection was accumulated over two decades.

Joan Ritcey, head of the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, said she still remembers the day the artifact went missing from MUN.

"He went through all the procedures, he did show an ID — it was his Nova Scotia driver's license," Ritcey said.

"We took down all that information, we had him sit at a special place for rare materials, and we even had our closed circuit television running. But, despite all of that, he managed to get away with the goods."

Ritcey said the centre always assumed the item was stolen for family reasons because the music was from a man named Henry Tillman, who lived in St. John's in 1853.

She estimates the sheet of music is valued at $300.