United States v. Approximately Four Hundred Fifty Ancient Cuneiform Tablets, et al.

In 2010, Steve Green, the president of Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby Corporation, traveled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to view hundreds of clay cuneiform tablets and bullae being offered for sale. The tablets were from ancient Mesopotamia. The bullae were ancient balls of clay with seals imprinted on them. Upon returning to the United States, Green consulted an expert who warned that the artifacts had likely been looted from archeological sites in Iraq and that shipments would likely be detained by United States Customs upon importation. Nevertheless, Green contracted to purchase approximately 450 cuneiform tablets and 3,000 bullae for $1.6 million. In late 2010 and early 2011, the items were shipped in multiple shipments from the UAE and Israel to three different Hobby Lobby-affiliated addresses. Each shipment lacked necessary customs documentation for formal entry, falsely described the shipment’s content as ceramic tiles or tile samples, contained a falsified invoice, and either failed to identify the contents’ country of origin or falsely stated the country of origin was Israel. The five FedEx shipments, which contained a total of approximately 223 tablets and 300 bullae, were detained by customs upon arrival in Memphis, Tennessee. The items were then seized by customs officers and moved to a New York storage facility. The shipments sent by express post, which contained approximately 227 tablets and 2,700 bullae, were processed at an international mail facility in New York and then delivered to the three Hobby Lobby-affiliated addresses in Oklahoma. The United States government (plaintiff) brought an action in rem, meaning an action against property, for the condemnation and forfeiture of the 450 tablets and 3,000 bullae. The government relied on 19 U.S.C. § 1595a(c)(1)(A), which states that merchandise brought to the United States contrary to law will be seized and forfeited if it was stolen, smuggled, or clandestinely imported. The government argued that the tablets and bullae were imported contrary to law because (1) United States law prohibited the transfer of Iraqi cultural items of archeological or cultural significance that were reasonably suspected to have been looted from Iraqi locations since 1990 and (2) Iraqi law specified that all antiquities found in Iraq were property of the state and that the few items allowed to be privately owned by Iraqi persons could not be transferred to a non-Iraqi person. The government further argued that the items qualified as smuggled or clandestinely imported because they were imported using documents that fraudulently and falsely described each shipment’s value, contents, and country of origin in order to prevent inspection by customs. Further, each shipment lacked the documentation necessary for formal entry, which was required for shipments having a value of $2,000 or more. Based on its presented facts that the tablets and bullae were brought to the United States contrary to law and were smuggled or clandestinely imported, the government claimed that seizure and forfeiture was proper under § 1595a(c)(1)(A).