Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal

United States versus Approximately 450 Ancient Cuneiform Tablets, a court filing from July 2017

Through the 2000s, the entire antiquities market—especially Hobby Lobby staff—had been widely and publicly warned of the proliferation of fakes, all manufactured with the same cheap flaws that are obvious to expert analysts.[4][5] Further, the scholar community disparaged the Museum's entire mission, including this statement from Jodi Magness, president of the Archaeological Institute of America: "[If] archaeology is being used as a means of proving the historicity and accuracy of the biblical text, that is extremely problematic". She generally warned, "Many [unprovenanced] antiquities surely come from illegal excavations or looting of archaeological sites".[6] As the Justice Department would later reveal, "In October 2010, an expert on cultural property law retained by Hobby Lobby warned the company that the acquisition of cultural property likely from Iraq, including cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals, carries a risk that such objects may have been looted from archaeological sites in Iraq. The expert also advised Hobby Lobby to review its collection of antiquities for any objects of Iraqi origin and to verify that their country of origin was properly declared at the time of importation into the United States. The expert warned Hobby Lobby that an improper declaration of country of origin for cultural property could lead to seizure and forfeiture of the artifacts by CBP."[7]

Reportedly, "dealers across the world were clamoring to sell to the Greens" while the family retained world-class master advisors in antiquities.[8]

In December 2010, Hobby Lobby purchased $1.6 million worth of Iraqi artifacts from dealers in the United Arab Emirates. The company continued the purchase despite concerns from lawyers over the uncertain origin of the artifacts, and the possibility that they could have been looted. The shipments included tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing, which were misrepresented on declarations as being ceramic and clay tile samples, and contained false designations of origin stating that the objects were from Turkey and Israel. Steve Green told CNN that they'd discovered fragments of the Book of Romans in just the previous 48 hours, which would later be audited to have been actually purchased 18 months prior.[8] The company became subject to investigation by the U.S. government for these actions.[7][9][10][11][12]

Many of the artifacts collected by the Green family, the evangelical owners of the craft-supply chain Hobby Lobby, lacked any supporting evidence of their history or ownership. This raised the possibility that the artifacts had been possibly looted or sold on the black market.[13] Archaeologists say some items may have come from the National Museum of Iraq, which had been looted after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Hobby Lobby made mass purchases with few pieces of vague paperwork and scant descriptions,[14] and "having commissioned inexperienced scholars to analyze ancient texts" according to Bible scholars in the book Bible Nation.[4][15] The Museum's chief curator in 2017 summarized "We can't even tell sometimes which particular item belonged to which acquisition, because it just wasn't documented either at the acquisition point or at the delivery point. ... So we have no way of knowing where these came from."[14]

In early July 2017, US federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint in the Eastern District of New York under the case name United States of America v. Approximately Four Hundred Fifty Ancient Cuneiform Tablets and Approximately Three Thousand Ancient Clay Bullae.[16] On July 5, 2017, Hobby Lobby consented to a settlement requiring forfeiture of the artifacts and payment of a fine of $3 million and the return of more than 5500 artifacts.[17][11][18]

In the early hours of July 30, 2017, Israeli authorities raided several private residences and storefronts in Jerusalem belonging to five antiquities dealers of Palestinian origin and confiscated several historical artifacts, including a papyrus fragment from the Egyptian Book of the Dead and a Pompeiian fresco, and more than US$200,000 in cash.[19][11] They also found evidence of money laundering and tax evasion, as well as receipts bearing Christian Green's names. The Israeli Antiquities Authority had been contacted in 2016 by the United States Department of Homeland Security, and provided Israeli authorities with evidence of money transfers between Green and Israeli-licensed antiquities dealers. In all, five individuals were arrested for tax evasion.[20] Biblical scholars in the book Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby report that the Green family's philanthropic activities—including antiquities donations to its own museum—have always followed a set ratio of 3:1, of the appraised value to the purchase price.[15] This is reportedly with the goal of a large profit margin by way of tax write-off, wherein "the government is effectively paying the Greens to amass a collection of dubious antiquities".[4]

The 2019 book Tablets From the Irisaĝrig Archive mentions the scandal in its analysis of more than one thousand cuneiform tablets, possibly stolen from Irisaĝrig, a 4,000-year-old lost city in Iraq.[21] The tablets, purchased by Hobby Lobby, were studied over a four year period while in the company's Oklahoma storerooms. "The new find shows that the company Hobby Lobby — whose co-owner, Steve Green, helped found the Museum of the Bible in November 2017 in Washington, D.C. — had far more cuneiform tablets obtained (possibly illegally) from this city, and other sites in Iraq, than previously believed." Up to 1400 artifacts to be returned to Iraq appear to be missing from the Hobby Lobby collection.[22][23]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal.

• Bible museum replaces chief executive after one year, Washington Post
• Hobby Lobby to pay $3 million fine, forfeit ancient artifacts, CNN
• Iraqi Artifacts Once Bought by Hobby Lobby Will Return Home, The New York Times
• Hobby Lobby's Smuggled Artifacts Will Be Returned To Iraq, NPR
• Some of Hobby Lobby’s Smuggled Artifacts May Come From Lost Sumerian City, Smithsonian
• Museum of the Bible Returns Artifacts to Egypt, NY Times