Organizations
Museum of the Bible
Museum
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Origin from 2017
Museum of the Bible opened in Washington, D.C. in November 2017, founded and funded principally by Hobby Lobby president Steve Green around biblical manuscripts and artifacts he had rapidly acquired for the project. The acquisitions drew sustained scrutiny: Hobby Lobby paid a 3 million dollar federal fine in 2017 over smuggled Iraqi antiquities, and the museum returned more than 17,000 looted or undocumented artifacts to Iraq and Egypt between 2018 and 2021, including cuneiform tablets and a Gilgamesh epic fragment purchased at auction, a well documented case of a major religious collecting institution confronting its own acquisitions practices.
History & Origin
Founded by the Green family, owners of the Hobby Lobby retail chain, whose acquisition of biblical antiquities for the museum's collection became entangled in a dispute over looted Iraqi artifacts; Hobby Lobby forfeited thousands of smuggled items and paid a civil penalty as part of a 2017 settlement.
Facts
Finances
Institutional Wealth or FinancesMuseum of the Bible's own IRS Form 990, filed with the US Internal Revenue Service and read here through ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer's digitisation of that filing, reports total revenue of about 78.7 million dollars against total expenses of about 78.0 million dollars, with total assets of about 449.5 million dollars, for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025. 2 Basis of the Wealth Figure Financial Disclosure RegimeMuseum of the Bible is a tax exempt public charity required to file an annual Form 990 with the US Internal Revenue Service, a public regulatory filing disclosing its revenue, expenses and assets each year. 2 Wealth Figure As Of Year Origins
Origin Period FounderSteve Green, opened 2017 1 FoundedFounded by Steve Green, president of the Hobby Lobby craft store chain, and opened in Washington, D.C. 1 Organisation
Distinguishing FeatureBuilt around biblical manuscripts and artifacts Steve Green had rapidly acquired for the project in the years before the museum's 2017 opening. 1 Evidence
History of the AccusationHobby Lobby was fined 3 million dollars by US federal authorities in 2017 over smuggled Iraqi antiquities acquired for the museum; more than 17,000 looted or undocumented artifacts were returned to Iraq and Egypt between 2018 and 2021. 1 History
Notable MomentAmong the returned items was a cuneiform fragment of the Gilgamesh epic, purchased at auction and later forfeited as looted material, one of the case's most widely reported single artifacts. 1 Status
Current StatusAn active museum in Washington, D.C., dedicated to the history, narrative and impact of the Bible, which opened in 2017. 1 Learn More
Steve Green's Collection and the Museum's 2017 Opening
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The Museum of the Bible opened in Washington, D.C. in November 2017, founded and funded principally by Hobby Lobby president Steve Green around biblical manuscripts and artifacts he had rapidly acquired for the project in the years beforehand. It is an active museum dedicated to the history, narrative and impact of the Bible, built around a collection Green assembled specifically for the institution in a compressed span of years rather than inherited from an older, more slowly built archive.
The speed and scale of that acquisition became the museum's defining controversy well before its doors opened to the public. The manner in which Green and Hobby Lobby assembled the collection, buying rapidly and in volume from a market with limited scrutiny of an object's origin or export history, drew sustained attention from archaeologists and antiquities regulators alike in the years leading up to the 2017 opening, and that acquisition history, rather than the museum's exhibits themselves, is the single most consequential fact in its founding story, one detailed at length in a second article on the smuggling case it produced.
The Smuggled Antiquities Case and Thousands of Returns
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Hobby Lobby was fined 3 million dollars by United States federal authorities in 2017 over smuggled Iraqi antiquities acquired for the Museum of the Bible, and more than 17,000 looted or undocumented artifacts were returned to Iraq and Egypt between 2018 and 2021 as a result of the settlement and the customs investigation that produced it. Among the returned items was a cuneiform fragment of the Gilgamesh epic, purchased at auction and later forfeited as looted material, one of the case's most widely reported single artifacts and a symbol of the wider collection's disputed origins.
The finding and the civil penalty attach to Hobby Lobby as a corporate entity rather than to any individual, and the matter was resolved by a 2017 settlement, a forfeiture of the disputed items, and the multi-year process of physically returning them to Iraqi and Egyptian custody. The episode stands as a well documented case of a major religious collecting institution confronting, under legal and public pressure rather than by its own early initiative, its own acquisitions practices in the years before the museum ever opened to visitors.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Egypt directly: "or undocumented artifacts to Iraq and Egypt between 2018 and 2021, including cuneiform tablets and a Gilgamesh epic fragment purchased at auction, a well documented case of a major religious..."
This source names Gilgamesh directly: "including cuneiform tablets and a Gilgamesh epic fragment purchased at auction, a well documented case of a major religious collecting institution confronting its own acquisitions practices."
This source names Iraq directly: "federal fine in 2017 over smuggled Iraqi antiquities, and the museum returned more than 17,000 looted or undocumented artifacts to Iraq and Egypt between 2018 and 2021, including cuneiform tablets..."
This source names Museum of the Bible directly: "Explorer's organization record for Museum of the Bible Inc, showing extracted data from its Form 990, the annual information return the Internal Revenue Service requires of most tax exempt..."
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