The Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby, are under investigation by the Customs and Border Protection for allegedly acquiring ancient artifacts illegally.
Steven Green, head of the family, is being investigated for allegedly trying to smuggle an estimated 300 period pieces of cuneiform tablets into the United States. The tablets are reportedly from the Middle East, according to Fox News. The package was addressed to the main office of the Hobby Lobby, which is located in Oklahoma City.
"Is it possible we have some [illicit] artifacts? That's possible," Green said to reporters, according to the New York Post.
The FedEx shipment was labeled as "handcrafted tiles" with a declared amount of $300. The cuneiform tablets are inscribed with the ancient language of Assyria and Babylonia which is now Iraq. Since these artifacts were seized in 2011, the Green family has been under federal investigation for the unlicensed importation of these ancient artifacts, according to the Daily Beast.
The Green family aims to put up a Bible museum with the artifacts. The package only had a "improper paperwork ... attached to it," Cary Summers, museum director, said, according to the Inquisitr.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has alerted collectors and art dealers to beware of members of the Islamic State terrorists who are selling artifacts on the black market.
"We now have credible reports that U.S. persons have been offered cultural property that appears to have been removed from Syria and Iraq recently," Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, the FBI's Art Theft Program manager, said, according to the International Business Times.
The Greens' Museum of the Bible, located in Washington D.C., will house a total of 40,000 artifacts. It will be a non-profit museum, set to launch in 2017.
