Hobby Lobby sues Christie’s over seized $1.6M ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’ tablet
NY Post
Venerable London-based auction house Christie’s is the target of an ongoing lawsuit brought by Hobby Lobby, which alleges that the auction house knowingly sold the arts and crafts chain a 3,500-year-old “Epic of Gilgamesh” tablet that had been smuggled out of Iraq and, as a result, was seized by the feds earlier this week.
Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby is accusing Christie’s of fraud and seeking to recover the $1,674,000 it paid for the tablet. The tablet, which bears the text of one of the world’s oldest works of literature, came from the area of modern-day Iraq and was illegally shipped to the US in 2003, the Department of Justice alleged this week.More Related News