After 'Missteps' And Controversies, Museum Of The Bible Works To Clean Up Its Act

When the Museum of the Bible opened three years ago, its founders aimed to engage a wider audience with the Bible and its thousands of years of history.

But the museum's ambitious goals have been overshadowed by a series of scandals, still unfolding, over antiquities — acquired in a five-year international shopping spree — that have turned out to be looted or fake.

Now the museum is trying to clean up its act. Museum executives have embarked on a campaign to comply with basic due diligence in authenticating the institution's holdings. The stricter policies, mandated by U.S. federal authorities, include going through the museum's entire 40,000-piece collection and returning potentially looted goods to their countries of origin. But some antiquities experts question why it has taken so long.

The controversial purchases began years before the museum opened. Steve Green, the evangelical president of the Hobby Lobby arts and crafts chain and the museum board's chairman, started acquiring artifacts in 2009 for what would become a $500 million museum on prime Washington, D.C., real estate. (Museum officials have long said the institution has no sectarian or evangelical agenda.)

He he knew little about collecting