Help

BI’s Article search uses Boolean search capabilities. If you are not familiar with these principles, here are some quick tips.

To search specifically for more than one word, put the search term in quotation marks. For example, “workers compensation”. This will limit your search to that combination of words.

To search for a combination of terms, use quotations and the & symbol. For example, “hurricane” & “loss”.

Login Register Subscribe

Hobby Lobby in hot seat over ancient artifacts

Reprints
Hobby Lobby in hot seat over ancient artifacts

Crafters and home decor enthusiasts hoping to invoke early Middle Eastern culture in their living rooms and kitchens might have to shop elsewhere. 

Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. will have to forfeit thousands of artifacts poached from modern-day, war-torn Iraq and pay a $3 million fine to resolve a civil action brought on by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to media reports on the Wednesday agreement between the popular home decor and craft store and federal investigators.

Investigators said the company received the falsely labeled artifacts — ancient cuneiform writing tablets and clay bullae, or balls of clay with imprinted seals — from a supplier in the United Arab Emirates. The artifacts were then smuggled into the United States, according to media reports. 

The dealers working with Hobby Lobby later mislabeled the shipments as "ceramics" and "samples" and illegally shipped them to Hobby Lobby stores, federal investigators told reporters. 

 

 

Read Next