REPORT: Owners of Hobby Lobby Suspected of Stealing Ancient Artifacts

A report says the Green family is under investigation for shipping 200 precious tablets from Israel to the U.S. for display in a future Bible museum.

Dawn Ennis

The Advocate's news editor Dawn Ennis successfully transitioned from broadcast journalism to online media following another transition that made headlines; in 2013, she became the first trans staffer in any major TV network newsroom. As the first out transgender editor at The Advocate, the native New Yorker continues her 30-year media career, in which she has earned more than a dozen awards, including two Emmys. With the blessing of her three children, Dawn retains the most important job title she's ever held: Dad.

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Dawn Ennis

October 27 2015 11:20 AM EST

October 27 2015 11:26 AM EST

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The conservative Christian family that owns Hobby Lobby may have broken the Eighth Commandment:Thou shall not steal. The Green family is under investigation for shipping some ancient clay tablets from Israel to Oklahoma City.

The items were to be displayed in a religion-themed museum the family is funding in Washington, D.C., The Daily Beastreports.

U.S. Customs authorities in 2011 seized more than 200 of the tablets, each thousands of years old and inscribed in cuneiform, the form of writing used in ancient Assyria and Babylonia, an area that is now Iraq. The investigation has been going on since then, the report says.

The FedEx shipping labels on the packages misrepresented their contents, according to the Beast. The president of the Museum of the Bible told the news site the delay in Customs is just a matter of "incomplete paperwork," but the Beast notes that an investigation that has already lasted four years is likely to involve more than missing dates or signatures.

The Green family and their business are known for adhering to right-wing Christian principles. This month the arts and crafts store chain made headlines when a judge ruled one store discriminated against a trans employee in Illinois. Last year the Supreme Court ruled Hobby Lobby stores do not have to comply with an Obamacare provision that requires employers to provide employees with access to contraception through group insurance plans. The Greens claimed their religious beliefs outweigh the rights of female employees to birth control, and the court agreed.