May 20, 2020 19:00:00

It turned out that the clay plate about 3500 years ago in which the world's oldest story 'Gilgamesh epic' was engraved was a stolen product

by

Lucas

The U.S. federal prosecutor's office said that about 3,500 years old clay plates purchased by art dealers for display at the Bible Museum in Washington DC were 'cultural heritage stolen from Iraq', and the court demanded a return to Iraq Submitted to.

Gilgamesh complaint (FINAL 2020-May-7) .docx
(PDF file) https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/press-release/file/1277316/download

US Authorities Say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh Tablet Is'Stolen, 'Must Go Back To Iraq: NPR
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/19/858605788/us-authorities-say-hobby-lobbys-gilgamesh-tablet-is-stolen-must-go-back-to-iraq

The clay plate in question is below.

According to the complaint, the clay plate describes a part of the oldest human history myth '

Gilgamesh Epic ' written in ancient Mesopotamia. The existence of clay tablets was known before 2001, and it is the first record that a Jordanian antique dealer directly obtained from the Middle East.

After that, an American dealer asked a wedge-shaped expert for appraisal, and purchased some works of art, including clay tablets, from an antiquarian in Jordan for about 50,000 dollars (about 5.3 million yen). Furthermore, in 2007, it was decided to hand over to another art dealer for $ 450,000 (about 48 million yen), according to the complaint, the birth certificate of the clay plate was already forged at this time, `` It was exhibited at a 1981 San Francisco auction with a piece of bronze box. '

Furthermore, in 2013, the clay board owner contacted a major auction company and asked to sell it. However, the antique dealer in the US advised the auction company staff that 'the origin of the clay plate cannot be scrutinized, so it would not be suitable for public auctions.' Hobby Lobby, an art dealer, won a clay plate at a major international auction in 2014 for about $ 1.6 million (about 170 million yen). After that, it was exhibited in the Bible Museum.

However, in 2017, when Hobby Lobby was fined $ 3 million (about 320 million yen) for tax evasion, some of the art objects displayed in the Bible Museum are from unknown ruins in Iraq. It turned out to have been stolen. In addition to this clay plate, it turned out that 5000 pieces of papyrus fragments and 6500 pieces of clay plate were stolen in Iraq.

by Ron Cogswell

Bible Museum President Steve Green cooperates with federal authorities to seize clay tablets in 2019 by agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office . At the time of writing the article, it is stored in the warehouse of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau in New York.

`` If a stolen cultural property is found, the US government will do everything possible to preserve it, including the return of stolen cultural properties, '' said Richard Donohue, a federal attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Is a case of failure to fulfill its obligation to minimize the fear that the source of Iraq's important cultural property has been fabricated and the buyer information that impairs the credibility of the source will not be sold. '.