Experts Believe Hobby Lobby Stole Biblical Antiquities From Iraq. Here’s Why.

Buying stolen or looted artifacts only encourages further theft and looting. Once an artifact is looted it's provenance is gone. Even museum pieces locked away in drawers may not have been researched yet, as it can take years/decades to get to them, too many Sumerian and Babylonian and Assyrian clay tablets have been looted and will never be translated and entered into out collective knowledge of the past, instead they adorn some scumbag's trophy wall. You can thank looters like ISIS and their enablers like Hobby Lobby for the destruction of our history.

lol, it's been happening since the 1700's. Hobby Lobby a big piece of it all. Yesssss.....

a reply to: stevieray

actually, the motivation was curiousity,
I was wondering just how many would see hobby lobby, bible museum, and middle eastern artifacts and right away either deny, or justify it... I kind of figured it would be quite a few...

ya know what would really be funny, if the tablets do turn out to be looted and have to be returned... I do believe in at least some cases, the country will reimburse the amount paid.... which in this case, there's a statement that says $300 per tablet. if that wasn't true and they paid thousand per tablet, well, that would be a rather large loss they would have to eat.

Before explaining how these two strategies could succeed, let us understand the scope of the problem. While ISIS destroys for propaganda purposes, monumental sites like the Temple of Bel at Palmyra, it encourages and intimidates locals to loot archaeological sites for objects to sell internationally. ISIS even accepts religious tax payments, "khums," in the form of looted antiquities.

The declared value of imports of Egyptian antiquities jumped more than 100 percent after the 2011 Revolution. Imports from Lebanon increased almost 4,500 percent. Imports of collector's coins from Libya increased more than 2,600 percent. These numbers do not account for the dark figure of undeclared antiquities smuggled into the U.S. ISIS is bulldozing, blowing up, or sledgehammering historical resources too big to move, most recently while human beings are strapped to them. Much of the rest they send to eager purchasers in the U.S., China, and Switzerland, who exploit the weakness of cultures suffering political instability.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

In Islamic tradition, Khums (Arabic: خمس‎ Arabic pronunciation: [xums], literally 'Fifth') refers to the historically required religious obligation of Muslim army to pay one-fifth of the spoils of war, the booty collected from non-believers after a military campaign; this tax was paid to the Caliph or Sultan, representing the state of Islam.[1][2]

en.wikipedia.org...

so well, the natives are being practically forced to go around and loot for ISIS if they can't pay the tax, of which a portion goes to the Caliph, although, I am don't sure ISIS has decided who that is yet.

originally posted by: dawnstar
a reply to: stevieray

actually, the motivation was curiousity,
I was wondering just how many would see hobby lobby, bible museum, and middle eastern artifacts and right away either deny, or justify it... I kind of figured it would be quite a few...

ya know what would really be funny, if the tablets do turn out to be looted and have to be returned... I do believe in at least some cases, the country will reimburse the amount paid.... which in this case, there's a statement that says $300 per tablet. if that wasn't true and they paid thousand per tablet, well, that would be a rather large loss they would have to eat.

It's funny, I have just the opposite expectation.

People see Hobby Lobby and bible.....instant frothing at the mouth and jumping up and down.

a reply to: stevieray

kind of like when they see anything about planned parenthood, huh?
but ya see, where in the videos about planned parenthood, I, and many others said if they had done anything illegal, then ya press charges... we just didn't think the allegations were true.
where as there's plenty of proof online if one chooses to look for it the cmp used fake drivers licenses and used fraud in that investigation.... they did break the law in other words... and so we have a "please drop the charges" petition being circulated about them....

same thing with the bundys, no one can deny that they broke the law, but well, please let them go...

and well, if hobby lobby is found to be guilty it will end up the same way even if the money they paid went right back to ISIS if one is to deduce anything from the discussion on this thread. They should be seen as heros, willing to spend their hard earned money to save the artifacts from certain destruction.

there's some kind of disconnect or something going on here.

The proudly Christian proprietors of the craft store chain Hobby Lobby have been under federal investigation for the past four years for illicit importation of religious artifacts and cultural antiquities from Iraq for their soon-to-open Museum of the Bible, according to a recent report by the Daily Beast.

If it takes 4 years to 'build' a case.

They ain't got nothing.

I think HL was specifically targeted for political reasons after that ruling.

And yeah people the last 8 years have been filled with the current administration using government agencies to targets it's opponents.

originally posted by: mclarenmp4
a reply to: dawnstar

Good for them, they've probably saved these artifacts from destruction judging by what's left of the antiquities in Iraq.
Maybe once Iraq is stable again they can reach a deal with them.

True, Arabs love to destroy and otherwise loot their artifacts and ancient statues.

Back when the Taliban were blowing up large statues, the US and others were NOWHERE to offeranything at all to put a stop to it. They only went there when they decided Blackwater Xe or whatever it is needed a large cash infusion, and to pretend to hunt for Osama to arrest him, even though everyone knew he went off to Pakistan, not that that would let Blackwater Xe and their US congress stop fighting in Afghanistan after he left despite that was the only stated reason they went in. What a joke politics are. What. A. Joke.

update on this story!!!

Hobby Lobby to pay $3 million fine, forfeit smuggled ancient artifacts

The DOJ said the company smuggled the artifacts into the United States, and the arts and crafts chain on Wednesday agreed to a settlement with the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
According to court documents, Hobby Lobby agreed to forfeit thousands of Iraqi artifacts and pay a $3 million fine to resolve the civil action the Justice Department brought against the company.

www.cnn.com...

The Museum of the Bible is set to open in Washington DC this coming Nov. and will exhibit Greene's vast collection of artifacts.

The Greens’ collection is one of the largest private collections of such artifacts in the world, comprising some 40,000 objects—many of which, remarkably, were unknown to scholars and the general public before the Greens acquired them. And the Greens made their first purchase only six years ago.

www.theatlantic.com...

Although, the collection might be a tad bit smaller now, thanks to our Dept of Justice.