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posted by martyb on Friday July 07 2017, @11:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-did-THOSe-get-here? dept.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hobby-lobby-hands-over-5500-illegally-imported-artifacts-180963969/

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday July 08 2017, @07:48AM

    by butthurt (6141) on Saturday July 08 2017, @07:48AM (#536460) Journal

    Among the allegations I see a claim that packages received by the company

    [...] bore shipping labels that falsely and misleadingly described their contents as “ceramic tiles” or “clay tiles (sample).” . After approximately 10 packages shipped in this manner were received by Hobby Lobby and its affiliates, CBP intercepted five shipments. All of the intercepted packages bore shipping labels that falsely declared that the Artifacts’ country of origin was Turkey.

    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.

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