Photo courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Our founder, Leila A. Amineddoleh, served as a cultural heritage law expert for the Eastern District of New York in its case against Hobby Lobby. The national retail chain, Hobby Lobby, purchased over 5,500 ancient artifacts from dealers in the Middle East, after one of the world’s legal heritage experts, Patty Gerstenblith, warned the company about acquiring objects lacking clear provenance. She warned the company that classes of objects from Iraq (including cuneiform tables) have a high probability of being looted from archaeological sites. Ignoring the advice, the company moved forward with the purchases anyway, and the plundered artifacts (bearing shipping labels with falsified information) entered the US illegally.

Yesterday, nearly 4,000 of the pieces were returned to Iraqi officials at the embassy. These objects will most likely be displayed at Iraq’s National Museum.

Our firm is honored to have played a role in such a momentous repatriation. For more information about the case, please read one of our prior blog posts.