Feds seize stolen 3,600-year-old tablet of poem

An ancient tablet more than 3,600 years old engraved with part of an epic Mesopotamian poem was seized from a Washington, D.C., museum by authorities after they became aware it was stolen from Iraq decades ago, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Monday.

The epic tale of the artifact’s journey to the United States began in 2003, when an unnamed American antiquities dealer bought the “potentially rare and valuable” tablet from a London dealer for just over $50,000, the feds said.

The dealer then imported the tablet to the U.S. illegally, the feds said.

The artifact was identified as part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, considered one of the oldest surviving works of literature that dates back to nearly 2,000 years B.C. It is about King Gilgamesh, who was part man and part god.

Known as the Gilgamesh Drama Tablet, it contains a scene in which Gilgamesh describes a dream to his mother, who tells him it means he will meet a new friend.

Hoping to sell it, the dealer created a back story, saying he bought it at a San Francisco auction in 1981.

Christie’s auctionhouse bought the tablet in 2013, despite learning from the dealer that its provenance was “not verifiable,” according to a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn.

Christie’s then sold the tablet for $1.6 million to another group knowing the story of the 1981 purchase couldn’t be verified, according to the feds and the lawsuit.

The tablet ended up on display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington. When the government of Iraq became aware it was there, it contacted the museum as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security asking for assistance, according to law enforcement sources.

In 2019, DHS seized the tablet from the museum, which is cooperating with the feds.