Hobby Lobby and the Looting of Iraq

Hobby Lobby tied itself to the fate of Iraq through participation in the smuggling of antiquities, and this raises a lot of interesting questions, which we'll be discussing here.
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My Links:
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Channels mentioned:
@LegalKimchi
@ArmchairEgyptology
@SeitanicPanicc

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Links to some things:
Badiou:

Denver Museum Article:

More on the artifact trade:

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Time:
00:00 Intro
02:48 Artifacts, extraction, and ethics
13:41 The 2003 Invasion and the Iraq Museum
21:23 The Sites of Antiquity
29:00 ISIS, Heritage, and Iconoclasm
36:38 The Zoning of Iraq
47:24 Conclusion
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Bibliography (excluding articles linked above because that felt redundant)

Badiou, Alain. Our Wound is Not So Recent . Oxford: Polity Press, 2017.

Beckert, Jens, Matías Dewey, Simon Mackenzie, and Donna Yates. “What Is Grey about the ‘Grey Market’?” Essay. In The Architecture of Illegal Markets: Towards an Economic Sociology of Illegality in the Economy. Oxford University Press, 2017.

Cunliffe, E., & Curini, L. (2018). ISIS and heritage destruction: A sentiment analysis. Antiquity, 92(364), 1094-1111. doi:10.15184/aqy.2018.134

Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union (European Parliament), Cousseran, and Levallois. “The Financing of the ‘islamic State’ in Syria and Iraq (ISIS).” Publications Office of the EU, September 11, 2017

Rothfield, Lawrence. The Rape of Mesopotamia: Behind the Looting of the Iraq Museum. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2009.

United States of America vs. Approximately Four Hundred Fifty (450) Ancient Cuneiform Tablets; and Approximately Three Thousand (3,000) Ancient Clay Bullae (UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK July 5, 2017).

[Saberjet]

the craziest part of this is that they trusted FedEx with the artifacts.

[satohime]

i was surprised to hear you say this wasn't your usual sort of content at the end! i'm an independent assyriologist and as a first time viewer thought this was incredibly well-structured and well-researched. i can't believe you've not gotten more views, but i'm glad youtube dropped this on me and will definitely be watching more<3

[hedgehog]

Sadam Hussain riding a chariot with missiles, helicopters, jets and gunboats has to be the single funniest image I've seen in a good while.

[fritzophrenia]

4:50

"Sure he might not be a good guy... but when are we going to get funding like this again?"

-Some Iraqi professor of antiquity, probably

[BrigitteEmpire]

Stealing ancient relics is a hobby right? That’s what I learned from the British museum

[Skyehoppers]

I would say I'm shocked that you were able to pull so much depth and insight and complexity from this story, but I'm not because I've seen you do it before and thats what makes this channel something special. In a small but real way I will think about the world differently from now on. Hopefully this one catches the algorithm sometime or another, definitely would be deserved, and something more people should hear!

[kolonarulez]

I can't stop imagining these priceless ancient artifacts literally sent to a hobby lobby store to be carefully unpacked and guarded by khaki clad employees.

[SamwiseOutdoors]

Hobby Lobby's Hammurabi Robbing Hobby.

[CharliMorganMusic]

This video has been sitting in my recommendations feed for a long time. I underestimated you. By a lot. Very well done.

[OmniBui]

I didn't know objects could be named in court cases. USA vs Approximately Four Hundred Fifty (450) Ancient Cuneiform Tablets; and Approximately Three Thousand (3, 000) Ancient Clay Bullae makes us seem really petty and bad at counting without context.

Subbed and liked lfg

[mustafaahmad]

Daesh داعش is also an acronym meaning الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام, exactly the same as english.
they hate it because acronyms are mostly reserved for unimportant stuff in Arabic.

[hawonl]

It is a damn shame your non-map game content gets buried. This is great.

[nice]

I think I should own all ancient artifacts in the world, since I’m the only person in the world that I trust.

[hedgehog]

About the conclusion I also think it makes sense to note that this is usually the standard we apply to trade goods. "innocent until proven guilty" is only the case for people but for trade goods of all kinds it's usually "suspect until proven trustworthy", food agencies don't just assume that food is safe until an accident happens, they require the producers to prove that it is safe and regularly inspect facilities to make sure that this is the case. Consumer products usually also have to undergo some form of testing, depending on their application, before they can be approved. It obviously should be the case for antiquities as well, that providence needs to be proven rigorously going all the way back to the source otherwise they should be treated as illegal, though frankly I just think there should be a blanket ban on their sale and the sale of paleontological fossils just like how the EU just has a blanket ban on the trade and sale of wild animals. I don't think there's any scenario where it's justifiable for a private collector to own these things, firstly because it limits scientific access to them, secondly because they can't possibly claim ownership over them when they didn't commission their production, and thirdly because obviously they are the common heritage of all mankind.

[GoosieGoos]

"in the case of the Denver museum owning stolen Cambodian artifacts"

[🎉🍾COLORADO MENTIONED!!!🎉🍾]

[christopher]

I'm Iraqi and funnily enough I found this video through its mention under the Valkyria one.
Very informative and well researched, it's evident in its tendency not fall into the old and tired orientalist pitfalls, reductive/unsubstantial narratives and narrow dichotomies that have unfortunately characterized most of the videos covering my country on this website.
You still might be surprised to learn that as someone from a Christian background I still appreciate the distinction between the grassroots Iraqi resistance which was ostensibly secular and the foreign fundamentalist groups that spawned independent of it, often in direct opposition.

[scribeslendy]

My Byzantine studies professor worked on some early Christian archeological sites around the time that ISIS came onto the scene.

He recalled to us that their location was kept SUPER secret, even the photos of the site would have their backgrounds edited out so that it couldnt be deduced from the environment.

OpSec was so tight because ISIS elements had a record of locating active archeological sites through publications so they could be looted/destroyed

[perdido]

Hobby Lobby supports Christian Values. The values of the Crusaders to loot.

[BirdEgg]

You keep me fascinated. You're one of the few creators out there pumping academic content with little commodification of content, while still retaining an 'image'. I truly appreciate how you combine different disciplines all with the same rigor of research of one another to create your story.

You mentioned you'd leave many links to read in the description, alongside Badiou. When you have the time, please leave them, I'd love a deeper dive.

[katmannsson]

Im so glad you didnt do the emotionally visceral thing you could have done during the Iconoclasm section. I just sort of knee jerked and scrolled down as soon as I saw the word because I've *seen* the videos of what they did to Nimrud and it was incredibly devastating and makes me cry to think about.