Hobby Lobby confiscates an ancient painting with “The Epic of Gilgamesh” for the Ministry of Justice

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The Ministry of Justice on Tuesday ordered the confiscation of a tablet containing a fragment of the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” one of the oldest known literary works. The confiscation is part of an ongoing operation to return thousands of clay tablets and bubbles that were illegally smuggled out of Iraq and purchased by the Hobby Lobby.

The Department of Justice alleges that the Gilgamesh Dream tablet was illegally shipped to the US from London by an antiques dealer and cuneiform expert in 2003. Once in the US, the tablet was cleaned up and experts were able to identify the cuneiform writing as part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, written in Akkadian. The tablet was then sold in 2007 with a “fake source letter”, claims the Department of Justice, which owned the tablet as it was sold several times over the next few years, eventually landing in a London auction house. In 2014, the auction house sold the tablet to the Hobby Lobby for $1.6 million.

The Hobby Lobby purchased the tablet and thousands of other devices like it with the intent of displaying some at the Museum of the Bible, which is funded by the family of arts and crafts chain founder David Green. The Gilgamesh Dream tablet was seized by law enforcement officers in 2019, according to the Department of Justice, and Hobby Lobby agreed to confiscate it.

“This confiscation marks a significant milestone on the path to returning this rare and ancient masterpiece of world literature to its original homeland,” said Jacqueline Casoulis, acting US attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “This office is committed to combating the black market sale of cultural property and the smuggling of looted artifacts.”

A cuneiform tablet illegally smuggled into the United States. Ministry of Justice

Hobby Lobby had previously agreed to return thousands of artifacts it had purchased that were illegally smuggled from Iraq through the United Arab Emirates and Israel and pay a $3 million fine.

“The company was new to the world of acquiring these items, and did not fully understand the intricacies of the acquisition process. This led to some unfortunate mistakes,” Hobby Lobby said in a statement in 2017. “The Company relied unwisely on merchants and shippers who, in hindsight, did not understand the proper way to document and ship these items. However, since learning of these errors, the Company has been an active participant in the government’s investigation and supports its efforts to protect the ancient world heritage.”

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