By no possible stretch of the imagination could this be a “regrettable mistake” due to inexperience. It is common knowledge in the art and antiquity market than pretty much everything coming from Iraq and neighboring areas is looted and being sold to finance terrorist organizations. And it is a frequent subject in major news media. There should be no settlement and Green should go to prison for financing terrorism. He knew exactly what he was doing and thought he could get away with it. And maybe he has.
Seriously. I remember about two years ago I went to Germany with a choir for a concert. My German being rusty, in order to brush up my aural comprehension of the language, I decided to listen to the radio as I was walking around and shopping in Saarbrücken prior to the concert, and what I ended up picking was a report on Daesh’s involvement in antiques trafficking. This really is old news.
This is ever older news. Ever since the the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 people reported about this, including the looting of museums and now unprotected sites.
Everything remotely ancient out of that region is tainted, no way around it.
Vs being destroyed or a private collection - yes that is a silver lining.
And while it was private, it was probably non-profit.
I’ve worked for a private museum and it is considered the 2nd best space museum on earth. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Those objects aren’t lost, are protected, and if they were looted, right there for someone to figure out and fix.
Their website and wikipedia page both repeatedly state that the museum will be “non-sectarian, non-political, and it will not proselytize”. But their list of planned exhibits includes:
40-foot tall bronze doors depicting the creation story from Genesis
an entire floor focusing on the Bible’s impact on the world “including its profound influence on fine arts, science, government, music, film and more.”
another floor depicting the entire story of the Bible
a kids’ area called Courageous Pages, “packed with biblical stories of people who dug deep and did what they believed was right, even in the face of fear or opposition.”
So this is what it means to be a "Christian"™ businessman - steal health care from female employees so you can use that money to commit international crime and finance terrorism. If there is a God, He should make note of the fact that the family which owns Hobby Lobby deserves an epidemic of eye cancer.
Indeed. The only time I ever had a comment trolled was on Hobby Lobby’s vaginal interference plan, on Disqus, and the two-legged cockroaches went wild upon the keyboards. I noted that I would now drive fifteen miles to Michaels to get my framing done: troll questioned my ecological commitment (I live at my workplace and drive an electric vehicle for short trips) and then…Hobby Lobby built a store across from Michaels in Ft. O.
Trolling? Forced birth? Buying Isis loot? They are cheap crooks and proved it.
Eh, you can still do all three with such exhibits. I guess it depends on your threshold of “proselytize”. I’d rather have exhibits like that vs the Creationist museum that has a very, very one sect view point.
But I’ve been to the Vatican and the cathedrals of Italy and seen lots of religious artifacts retelling parts of the bible that weren’t politicized or sectarian. Even if you aren’t a believer, there is a 2000 years of Christian history which DID shape our world, and even more of Jewish history which also shaped it.
If it wasn’t for the fact these were looted in modern day, I wouldn’t have an issue with it.
(Although, lots of National Museums have “looted” items from conquests and wars and other things. The British National Museum has an amazing collection from around the world, and it wasn’t all just donated ;))
Fun story - my favorite part was seeing Galileo’s tomb in a church. I asked one of the people there, “Wasn’t he excommunicated at the time?”
Sure, and don’t get me wrong, I’m fascinated by Biblical history and would love to see the artifacts that have been legitimately donated (although where the donors got them, well, that might still be super sketchy). But it’s a huge, six-floor museum, and only one floor will have artifacts to view; the rest is devoted to interactive exhibits about the ways the Bible has affected popular culture, government, and history, and in their words, “presents the facts” about things like morality and creationism and “lets the viewer decide”. That sounds like straight-up proselytizing to me, but hey, it’s a private museum, they can tell whatever story they want to tell.
Yes. What was the posited “business use” for these items? Were they going to sell them to crafters? Decorate the corporate headquarters? Because if there wasn’t a business use, than this was probably also a violation of IRS rules.
