Forfeiture of ancient tablet bought by Hobby Lobby approved
A federal judge in New York has approved the forfeiture of a 3,500-year-old clay tablet bearing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh that was looted from Iraq and sold for $1.6 million to Hobby Lobby for display in the Museum of the Bible, prosecutors announced.
The cuneiform tablet, written in the ancient language of Akkadian and dating from around 1500 B.C., was illegally transported to the U.S. in 2003 and again in 2014, prosecutors said in a federal complaint.
A false provenance letter was used to sell the tablet several times before Hobby Lobby bought it from a London-based auction house in 2014, prosecutors said.