it to the State of Lithuania. The offer's deadline was set to February 16, 2018, when Lithuania will commemorate the 100th anniversary of its declaration of independence. On March 29, 2017, Vytautas Magnus University professor Liudas Mažylis announced he had found the original document in the Federal Foreign Office Political Archive in Berlin, Germany, hand-written in the Lithuanian language and signed by the twenty. He also announced that he had found the German-language version of the February 16, 1918 document and the Act of December 11, 1917. The latter displays nineteen signatures (without that of Pranas Dovydaitis). Germany confirmed the documents' authenticity on the following day and they were displayed publicly by two officials — Michael Roth, the German Minister of State for Europe, and Deividas Matulionis, Lithuania ambassador in Germany. On October 7, 2017, Lithuania Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius and Germany Minister of Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel signed an agreement that the original Act of Independence will be displayed for five years in the House of the Signatories where it was originally signed, making it the main symbol of the Lithuania's Centenary of the Restoration of the State celebrations. On December 22, 2017, experts from the Lithuanian Police Forensic Research Center after a thorough analysis announced that the hand-written act was written by one of the signatories Jurgis Šaulys hand. On December 22, 2017, yet another version of the Act of Independence of Lithuania was found by historian Darius Antanavičius in the Vatican Secret Archives that was sent to the Holy See. This version of the Act was printed in German language and signed by Antanas Smetona, Jonas Vileišis, Jurgis Šaulys and Justinas Staugaitis. Signatories Most of the signatories of the Act remained active in the cultural and political life of independent Lithuania. Jonas Vileišis served in the Seimas and as mayor of Kaunas, temporary capital of Lithuania; Saliamonas Banaitis was involved in finance, opening several banks. Among the signatories were two future Presidents of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona and Aleksandras Stulginskis. Jonas Basanavičius, chairman of the Council of Lithuania, returned to an academic life, pursuing his research in Lithuanian culture and folklore. Five signatories died before World War II started; three died during the Nazi occupation. Those who did not emigrate to Western countries became political prisoners after Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. Aleksandras Stulginskis and Petras Klimas were sent to prison in Siberia by