The arts and crafts giant Hobby Lobby will pay a $3 million fine and return over 5,500 Biblical artifacts smuggled out of Iraq.

But art crime and archaeological scholars say that the consequences from the scandal have only just begun.

Hobby Lobby president Steve Green sits on the board of the Bible Museum, an $800 million project set to open this year on the National Mall in Washington D.C.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The museum released a statement insisting that none of the items acquired by Hobby Lobby were intended to be housed or displayed in the museum. But those who have closely followed the museum’s development have called that claim into question.

Even more importantly, the scandal is focusing new attention on other artifacts in the museum collection and how they were obtained.

“The fact is, they’re not as separate as they claim,” Candida Moss, the co-author of a forthcoming book on the Green family, told the Washington Post.“Many of the artifacts will be on loan from the Green collection. There are other items in their collection that scholars are asking questions about.”

Contact Jesse Bernstein at [email protected] or on Twitter @__jbernstein

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount