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published photo, AMERICAN IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT
The artifact is believed to have entered the United States illegally
A US federal court has ruled that the rare artifact, known as the Gilgamesh Dream Code, must be turned over to government authorities.
The archaeological inscription, estimated to be 3,500 years old, dates back to the civilization of Mesopotamia in present-day Iraq, a text from the epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest literary works in the world.
Officials believe the item entered the United States illegally and was subsequently sold to a group of Hobby Lobby arts and crafts stores.
The rare piece was purchased for display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC.
The museum, which is chaired and funded by the chairman of the Hobby Lobby Group, Steve Green, has been the subject of widespread controversy over its collection.
Officials said the piece was purchased by an American antique dealer in 2003 in London, then shipped to the United States without declaring its contents, and then sold with false documents.
The piece sold several times before the Hobby Lobby Group bought it at auction in 2014 for $ 1.67 million.
Eastern New York City Acting Attorney General Jacqueline M. Casoulis described the latest development as “a milestone in the return of this masterpiece that delivers a rare piece of ancient world literature to his home country”.
A statement from officials said Hobby Lobby had accepted the loss of the case.
The artifact known as the “Gilgamesh’s Dream Number” includes parts of a Sumerian poem, which is part of the epic in which some stories and themes are similar to some Old Testament stories, such as the Garden of Eden.
The Homeland Security Agency seized the exhibit from the museum in 2019.
Hobby Lobby has already been fined $ 3 million and forced to turn over thousands of other artifacts.
Green justified his mistakes with his naivety, claiming that he “knew very little” about the archaeologist when he began to acquire rare items.
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