“Known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, it originated in the area of modern-day Iraq and entered the United States contrary to federal law. An international auction house later sold the tablet to Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., a prominent arts-and-crafts retailer based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for display at the Museum of the Bible,” the department said in a press release.
The tablet was originally purchased by a US antiquities dealer in 2003 from the family member of a London coin dealer. Multiple sales followed, ending with the 2014 purchase by the conservative Hobby Lobby's board of directors for a Washington DC Bible-themed museum, the release said.
Hobby Lobby has acknowledged that they must forfeit the tablet, and law enforcement agents took possession in 2019, the release added.
The tablet, measuring 6 inches by 5 inches, is written in the Akkadian language. It includes a portion of the epic of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian poem considered one of the world’s oldest works of literature, according to the release.