Hobby Lobby forced to return illegally obtained "Biblical" artifacts and pay 5 million dollar fine.

Courtesy of NPR:

Hobby Lobby, the Oklahoma-based chain of arts and crafts retail stores, has agreed to pay a $3 million fine and forfeit thousands of ancient clay tablets and clay bullae that were smuggled into the United States with improper labels. 

The announcement by the Justice Department says Hobby Lobby bought over 5,500 artifacts, such as clay tablets and blocks with cuneiform writing, and cylinder seals for $1.6 million. The artifacts, originally from Iraq, were shipped to the company from the United Arab Emirates and Israel with labels that described them as "ceramic tiles" or "clay tiles (sample)." 

In a statement, Hobby Lobby President Steve Green said the company "was new to the world of acquiring these items, and did not fully appreciate the complexities of the acquisitions process. This resulted in some regrettable mistakes." 

"We should have exercised more oversight and carefully questioned how the acquisitions were handled," he said. 

But the Justice Department prosecutors say the company should have realized that its acquisition of the artifacts "was fraught with red flags."

As it turns out Hobby Lobby was warned about these "red flags" by their own expert.

Courtesy of CNN: 

"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 DOJ said. 

"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. "

But hey, why listen to THAT guy?

As if all of this were not embarrassing enough to Hobby Lobby, there is also the fact that they may inadvertently be funding ISIS.

Courtesy of Newsweek:

Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq are netting between $150 million and $200 million a year from illicit trade in plundered antiquities, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations said in a letter released on Wednesday. 

"Around 100,000 cultural objects of global importance, including 4,500 archaeological sites, nine of which are included in the World Heritage List of ... UNESCO, are under the control of the Islamic State ... in Syria and Iraq," Ambassador Vitaly Churkin wrote in a letter to the U.N. Security Council. 

"The profit derived by the Islamists from the illicit trade in antiquities and archaeological treasures is estimated at U.S. $150-200 million per year," he said.

These artifacts were scheduled to be displayed at the Hobby Lobby's Museum of the Bible.

But here's the thing, MOST so called "biblical artifacts" turn out to be bullshit, and are either actual ancient artifacts unrelated to events in the Bible or outright fabrications of pottery and cuneiform tablets that sell like hot cakes to Christians desperate to prove that the Bible is accurate.

In fact Archeological finds rarely support events occurring in the Bible, though that often does not stop charlatans from offering them up as proof.

I think the only thing that one could learn by visiting this "Museum of the Bible" is that the folks who own Hobby Lobby have money to burn, and that it would undoubtedly be better spent helping the poor, building a REAL museum, or at the very least not wasted fighting against having to provide access to contraception in their employee's health care plan.