Today, many of the Dead Sea Scrolls—which total some 100,000 fragments—are housed in the Shrine of the Book, part of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. The excavation and selling of fragments is outlawed under a UN convention on cultural property from 1970, which means that private sellers fight over fragments removed before that time.

The founder of the Museum of the Bible, Steve Green, who his business the Hobby Lobby craft chain, faced scrutiny over the purchase of more than 5,500 artefacts from 2010 that originated from Iraq. The chain agreed to pay a $3m fine last year to settle a case with the Department of Justice that claimed the objects were illegally smuggled. The items have since been returned.

Hobby Lobby said that it was new to the world of antiquities when it began acquiring historical items for its Museum of the Bible in 2009 and made mistakes in relying on dealers and shippers who “did not understand the correct way to document and ship” them.

Reuters contributed to this report