Store fined $3 million over Iraqi artifacts

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma - Hobby Lobby Stores has agreed to pay a $3 million federal fine and forfeit thousands of ancient Iraqi artifacts smuggled from the Middle East that the government alleges were intentionally mislabeled, federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors filed a civil complaint in New York on Wednesday in which Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby consented to the fine and forfeiture of thousands of tablets and bricks written in cuneiform, one of the earliest systems of writing, as well as other artifacts that prosecutors say were shipped without proper documentation.

Hobby Lobby executed an agreement to purchase over 5,500 artifacts in December 2010 for $1.6 million. Prosecutors said acquisition of the artifacts "was fraught with red flags" and that packages bore shipping labels that described their contents as "ceramic tiles".