One of the items recovered during a raid made on antiquities dealers in Jerusalem. Image by Israeli Police

Five Palestinian antiquities dealers were arrested in Jerusalem in connection with a smuggling chain involving the American arts and crafts store Hobby Lobby, NPR reported Monday.

Israeli police said they seized papyrus fragments from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, a bust of an Etruscan woman, and a fresco from Pompeii, along with two black Audis and around $200,000.

It was just a few weeks ago that Hobby Lobby was forced to return forced to return illegally-gotten artifacts smuggled out of Iraq and through Israel to the United States. The company also agreed to pay a $3 million fine. As of now, no criminal charges have been brought against any Hobby Lobby employees or owners involved in the smuggling.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Police say the total sales of antiquities to Hobby Lobby president Steve Green amounted to around $20 million.

Some experts on the Israeli antiquities market say that the arrests augur a further tightening on regulatory loopholes.

“This looks to me like the beginning of the end of the legal business in Israel,” David Hendin, a biblical coin expert, told NPR. “It’s the biggest step yet in the shutting down of what’s left of the legal trade.”

Contact Jesse Bernstein at [email protected] or on Twitter @__jbernstein

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount