Arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby is in a bit of biblical, hot water.
Prosecutors allege Hobby Lobby bought more than 5,500 biblical artifacts for $1.6 million from an unnamed dealer beginning in 2010, according to a report by The New York Times.
Hobby Lobby argues that it was new to the world of antiquities when it began acquiring historical items for its "Museum of the Bible" in 2009 and made mistakes in relying on dealers and shippers who "did not understand the correct way to document and ship" them.
The civil complaint was filed by federal prosecutors Wednesday along with a stipulation of settlement that compels Hobby Lobby to return all of the smuggled goods and forfeit $3 million to the government.
Prosecutors say in the complaint that Hobby Lobby, began assembling a collection of cultural artifacts from the Fertile Crescent. The company allegedly went so far as to send its president and an antiquities consultant to the United Arab Emirates to inspect a large number of rare cuneiform tablets — traditional clay slabs with wedge-shaped writing that originated in Mesopotamia thousands of years ago.
In 2010, a deal for the tablets was struck, despite warnings from a cultural property law expert hired by the craft store who said that the artifacts might have been looted from historical sites in Iraq, and that failing to determine their heritage could break the law.
A dealer based in the United Arab Emirates allegedly shipped packages containing the artifacts to three Hobby Lobby corporate addresses in Oklahoma City, bearing false label that described their contents as "ceramic tiles" or "clay tiles" and the country of origin as Turkey.
The government will post a notice online giving the artifacts’ owners 60 days to submit claims. After that, the Iraqi government can submit its own claim. The Justice Department will ultimately decide where the items go.