Five artifacts thought to be part of the Dead Sea Scrolls are fake and will not be displayed anymore, the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC has announced, CNN reported on Monday.
After CNN last year raised questions about the artifacts’ authenticity, scholars tested the fragments and found that they "show characteristics inconsistent with ancient origin and therefore will no longer be displayed at the museum."
Museum of the Bible chief curatorial officer Jeffrey Kloha said that, "though we had hoped the testing would render different results, this is an opportunity to educate the public on the importance of verifying the authenticity of rare biblical artifacts, the elaborate testing process undertaken and our commitment to transparency."
Steve Green, the museum's founder and chairman, refused to reveal how much his family spent for the 16 fragments in its collection. But other evangelicals have paid millions to buy similar pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Green has faced scrutiny over the purchase, through his Hobby Lobby craft chain, of more than 5,500 artifacts from 2010 that originated in Iraq, according to the Independent.
The chain paid a $3 million fine last year to settle a case with the Department of Justice that claimed the artifacts were illegally smuggled, and they have since been returned.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest copies of biblical text ever found, and include passages of the Hebrew Bible that are some 2,000 years old, with many of its approximately 100,000 fragments housed in the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.