Ancient Gilgamesh tablet seized from Hobby Lobby by US authorities

The craft store had acquired the 3,600-year-old artefact for its Bible museum, but court says it had been smuggled and should be returned to Iraq

A rare and ancient tablet showing part of the epic of Gilgamesh, which had been acquired by Christian arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby for display in its museum of biblical artefacts, has been seized by the US government.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) alleges that the 3,600-year-old Gilgamesh Dream Tablet", which originated in a region that is now part of Iraq, was acquired in 2003 by an American antiquities dealer, encrusted with dirt and unreadable", from the family member of a London coin dealer. Once it had arrived in the US, and been cleaned, experts realised that it showed a portion of the Gilgamesh epic, one of the world's oldest works of literature, in the Akkadian language.