Expedition 33 art book gets confused for ancient relic, is confiscated

A collector's edition of Clair Obscur was confiscated by Iraqi customs, which believed it might have historical significance

There's no denying that the painted storybook world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is brimming with gorgeous artwork. Perhaps it's almost too gorgeous — at least, that's the funniest way to parse a mishap shared by an Expedition 33 fan who tried importing a special version of the game that came packed with an art book.

The Monolith Set of Expedition 33 is a collector's item that includes a steelbook case for Sandfall Interactive's lauded RPG, a music box statuette, and a 48-page hardcover art book. Pre-orders went live midway through 2025 and only began shipping in January 2026, but not every copy reached its destination safely. So says Redditor Ahmed15252, who shared pictures of a letter they had received from the Iraqi government explaining why Customs had taken the material for further inspection.

"The parcel contained an art book with drawings of monetary value," the notice reads. The letter later specifies that the art book has been referred to Iraq's Ministry of Culture and Antiquities for further study. Another document included in the notice shows that the art book was expedited to Iraq's Directorate of Investigation and Excavation. Here's what it looks like, for reference:

"This can't be for real," Ahmed15252 wrote. "They acting like its a mona lisa painting or sum like that," Ahmed15252 later said in a reply to a comment on their post. "I don't know what the hell went through their minds to assume its an ancient book," they added in yet another comment. In the embed below, you can scroll to view the letters purportedly sent to the fan by the Iraq government.

What makes this especially funny, though, is that someone at Customs had to open the collector's edition and rummage through it before interpreting it to be an ancient artifact. Meanwhile, the actual name of the game is visible on both the steelbook case and the Paintress replica. Maybe someone at the Iraqi Customs read the news that Sandfall Interactive got knighted by France and assumed the art book had historical significance?

Sandfall Interactive did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Ahmed15252 has a good sense of humor about all the confusion. It probably helps that the likelihood of retrieving the package is extremely high given that it is not, in fact, an ancient piece of history.

"Honestly at this point im just gonna laugh it off, I've been waiting for prolly 7 or 8 months for the set and its finally here and sum kinda bullshit like this happens, like seriously?!!" Ahmed15252 wrote.

"10/10 experience will definitely accidentally import history again," Ahmed15252 said.