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Big-box arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby will surrender some 5,500 artifacts it purchased illegally and pay $3 million after federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint in New York yesterday, reports Dan Whitcomb at Reuters.
The objects are believed to come from Iraq, where they were smuggled into other Middle Eastern countries. In 2010, they were sent to the United States falsely labeled as clay tiles.
[...] The items include 144 cylinder seals, used to roll decorative images onto clay, as well as clay bullae, which were used to create wax tokens to authenticate documents. The majority of the items are cuneiform tablets. Cuneiform is a type of writing developed about 6,000 years ago in what is now southern Iraq, Smithsonian.com's Anne Trubek reports. Over time, the writing, which looks like a series of lines and triangles impressed into palm-size pieces of wet clay, was used for over a dozen ancient languages, much like the Roman alphabet for most European and Romance languages.
So, why was a craft chain buying ancient Iraqi artifacts in the first place? Whitcomb reports that company president Steve Green is the founder of the Museum of the Bible, now under construction in Washington, D.C. He began acquiring artifacts for the museum, including the forfeited items, in 2009.
Also at NYT. DoJ and Hobby Lobby statements.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @09:28PM (2 children)
Don't forget that this is a company that makes its living importing goods from around the world, and now they're claiming that they were new to all these importation rules and regulations. They also paid five people through seven bank accounts, had the stuff mailed all over the place in the US, and lied on the customs forms as to what was in the packages and their country of origin.
See, just a simple rookie mistake!
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday July 08 2017, @02:11AM (1 child)
they believe in god.
therefore, they can't be trusted.
(go ahead, mod be down. I know some of you will want to).
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday July 08 2017, @07:48AM
Among the allegations I see a claim that packages received by the company
Supposing that that's true, I'd call the actions of the company dishonest. The terms of the settlement strike me as unfavourable toward the company. It's a company which hasn't been shy about pursuing litigation. If they had a good chance of winning, I think they would have declined to settle on such unfavourable terms. Hence I think there's truth in at least some of the government's claims. The claimed actions are, it seems to me, at odds with Christianity's teachings. Perhaps the beliefs espoused by the Green family aren't sincerely held.