Hobby Lobby family spending draws scrutiny in new book on religion, law and museum artifacts

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Hobby Lobby family spending scrutiny

Highlights

Hobby Lobby's Green family spent decades using company profits to advance an evangelical agenda in law, education, and cultural institutions, according to Michael Blanding's July book.
In 2010, Hobby Lobby agreed to buy over 5,500 artifacts for $1.6 million despite warnings about looted Iraqi antiquities, later forfeiting thousands and paying $3 million in a 2017 federal settlement.
Hobby Lobby purchased the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet in 2014 for $1.67 million, but federal agents seized it in 2019 and the company forfeited it in 2021 after provenance irregularities.

Book traces artifact buying and legal controversies

As reported by Fortune, investigative journalist Michael Blanding’s book, published in July by PublicAffairs, argues that the Green family has spent decades using Hobby Lobby’s profits to advance its evangelical worldview through institutions, litigation and public advocacy.

Blanding said his reporting began after he read about the seizure of a 3,500-year-old clay tablet tied to the Museum of the Bible and learned it belonged to Hobby Lobby. He said that discovery led him from the antiquities trade into a broader examination of how the Oklahoma City-based family uses corporate wealth in law, education and culture.

Starting in 2009, Hobby Lobby president Steve Green assembled tens of thousands of biblical artifacts, many of them intended for the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Blanding says the family bought the objects partly to support the historical claims of the Bible, and he describes the boundary between the family, the company and the museum as highly fluid despite the museum’s separate nonprofit status.

The collecting campaign later drew federal attention. The Justice Department said Hobby Lobby agreed in December 2010 to buy more than 5,500 artifacts for $1.6 million despite warnings about looted Iraqi antiquities, and that the items were shipped under false labels. The company settled in 2017, forfeited thousands of artifacts, paid $3 million and accepted responsibility for its conduct.

Hobby Lobby also bought the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet from an auction house in 2014 for about $1.67 million. Federal agents seized it in 2019, and the company consented to its forfeiture in 2021 after prosecutors said the auction house had withheld the tablet’s false provenance from Hobby Lobby and the museum.

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