3 ms·
Many upvotes here due to the political/religious aspect, but there should be some comment on the archeological issue. From what I've gathered in the past, the m
by wrp 2y ago
Many upvotes here due to the political/religious aspect, but there should be some comment on the archeological issue. From what I've gathered in the past, the main points are:
1. An organization with very deep pockets sets out to collect Near Eastern antiquities.
2. Due to turmoil in the Middle East, many relics of dubious provenance are hitting the market.
3. The org decides to buy as much of this stuff as they can, knowing that some of it will be dubious.
4. The org voluntarily has their purchases inspected, knowing they will not be compensated for things that have to be returned to their rightful places.
In outline, this sounds like the buyers doing the right thing in a bad situation.
- boomboomsubban 2y agoHobby Lobby openly admitted to falsifying documents to smuggle in artifacts. I've never seen anything suggesting they take your fourth point seriously, at least not before the courts got involved. And, as mentioned in the article, point five would be that they're effectively using this as a tax avoidance loophole.
- turtlesdown11 2y agoThe claims made above with regard to 3 and 4 are false. https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/hobby-lobby-settles-3-million-civil-suit-falsely-labeling-cuneiform-tablets https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/hobby-lobby-settles-3-mill...
- wrp 2y agoThe article confirms #3 and contradicts #4.
- turtlesdown11 2y agoThe press report from ICE does not confirm that they "knew some would be dubious". The press report makes it clear that all the purchases were not done above board.