The American arts-and-crafts store Hobby Lobby has been ordered to forfeit a rare antique tablet from modern-day Iraq bearing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh that was smuggled into the US.
A New York district court has ruled that the retailer cannot keep the rare cuneiform relic, known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, which bears parts of the ancient Sumerian poem, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.
The Oklahoma-based firm has been forced to forfeit thousands of illegally imported ancient Middle Eastern artefacts in recent years, many of which were planned as exhibits for its Museum of the Bible in Washington.
“This forfeiture represents an important milestone on the path to returning this rare and ancient masterpiece of world literature to its country of origin,” said acting US Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis.
“This office is committed to combating the black-market sale of cultural property and the smuggling of looted artefacts.”
A US antique dealer purchased the dirt-encrusted tablet from the family of a London coin dealer in 2003 and shipped it to the US without declaring what was inside, as is required under US law, officials said.
The dealer sold the tablet in 2007 with a false letter about its origins. The 15 X 12-centimetre tablet changed hands several times before being purchased by Hobby Lobby in 2014 in a private sale and reimported to the US.
It features text in the Akkadian language from the epic poem about Gilgamesh, a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology, using the cuneiform system of writing.
It was set to appear in the Museum of the Bible, of which Hobby Lobby’s evangelical president, Steve Green, is the chairman and founder. Officers seized the tablet in 2019 and the company has consented to the forfeiture.
Peter Fitzhugh, the Homeland Security Investigations agent on the case, said antique trafficking was a “lucrative criminal enterprise” carried out by international gangs who cared little about the impact of losses on countries of origin.
Museums and archaeological sites across Iraq have been plundered and thousands of antiques have been smuggled overseas amid conflict and instability there since the early 1990s, heritage experts have estimated.
US authorities seek to “ensure looted pieces are no longer trafficked through commerce for an illicit profit because the cultural value of this tablet that travelled the world under false provenance exceeds any monetary value,” said Mr Fitzhugh.
Forfeited antiques can be returned to their rightful owners upon request.
Hobby Lobby has said it was new to the world of antiquities when it began acquiring historical items in 2009 and made mistakes in relying on dealers and shippers who did not follow US anti-smuggling importation rules.
The company has previously forfeited thousands of cuneiform tablets and bricks, clay bullae and cylinder seals that originated from the region of modern-day Iraq and were shipped under false labels.
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Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
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The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
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Always use only regulated platforms
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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