Page 16 - IAV Digital Magazine #528

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Hobby Lobby Ordered To
Forfeit Ancient Artifact Bought
For $1.6 million In 2014
By Paul LeBlanc, CNN
Washington (CNN)A New York federal court has ordered US craft store Hobby Lobby to forfeit an ancient artifact pur- chased at a 2014 auction that "originat- ed in the area of modern-day Iraq and entered the United States contrary to federal law," the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
The artifact -- known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet -- is inscribed with a por- tion of "Gilgamesh," an epic poem consid- ered one of the world's oldest works of literature. In 2014, Hobby Lobby, a pri- vately owned arts and crafts retailer whose president is also the chairman of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, bought the clay tablet for display in the museum from an international auction house for $1,674,000.
The museum and Hobby Lobby both asked the auction house about the tablet's origin, but the auction house with- held that information and lied in saying that the antiquities dealer had confirmed the details of provenance, according to the Justice Department,
which has sought to return to artifact to Iraq. Law enforce- ment agents seized the tablet from the museum in 2019.
The Museum of the Bible has expressed its support for the government's effort to return the artifact to Iraq.
Christie's, the interna- tional auction house from which Hobby Lobby bought the item, previously told CNN that "any sug- gestion that Christie's had knowledge of the original fraud or illegal importation is unsub- stantiated."
Assistant Attorney
General Kenneth A. Polite said in a state- ment Tuesday that "thwarting trade in smuggled goods by seizing and forfeiting an ancient artifact shows the depart- ment's dedication to using all available tools, including forfei- ture, to ensure jus- tice."
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