The Green Collection and Federal Overreach

Political opponents want to stop this museum opening

Questions have been raised by opponents of collecting about the provenance of some articles in the collection of the Green family of Oklahoma City. The Daily Beast ran a story about two or three hundred cuneiform tablets purchased form an Israeli antiquities dealer and confiscated by U.S. Customs when they were being shipped to the Green collection storage facility in Oklahoma City in 2011.  These tablets, like the other 40,000 or so ancient artifacts owned by the Green family, were destined for the Museum of the Bible, the giant new museum funded by the Greens, slated to open in Washington, D.C., in 2017. Cary Summers, the president of the Museum of the Bible confirmed the seizure of the cuneiform tablets and the subsequent federal investigation reported by the "Daily Beast" (an internet publication edited by Tina Brown, who is not known to be a fan of the Greens or their evangelical and conservative background). Summers indicates however that the ongoing federal investigation was simply the result of a logistical problem. “There was a shipment and it had improper paperwork—incomplete paperwork that was attached to it.” Summers suggests that the tablets were merely “held up in customs,” and "sometimes this stuff just sits, and nobody does anything with it.”  Peter Tompa raises the point that it is far too early to jump to conclusions based on information that was initially leaked to the journalist from the Daily Beast. "How do we know the information that was leaked is accurate? [...]  So, let's see how this develops before we convict the Greens of anything". On the contrary it is the Federal government which has to aswer for why this man's property has been held up in Customs so long. Questions should be asked, this looks like a political issue.