Nicolas Cage returns stolen dinosaur skull to Mongolia

In a story ripped straight from a Nicolas Cage film, the Oscar-winning actor has agreed to turn over a stolen dinosaur skull that he bought for $276,000 to the Mongolian government.

It all started when the wealthy actor bought a dinosaur bone, a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull to be exact, at an auction in 2007. He is known for his purchases of freaky artefacts, previously owning an array of shrunken heads and a pet shark.

The office of Mr Preet Bharara, the US Attorney in Manhattan, filed a civil forfeiture complaint last week to take possession of the Tyrannosaurus bataar skull, which will be repatriated to Mongolia. It is unclear whether there is a connection between Prokopi and the skull Cage is returning.

Cage, who won an Academy Award in 1996 for his leading role in “Leaving Las Vegas”, is an avid collector and was reportedly in competition with Leonardo Di Caprio for purchase of the fossil, according to United States media.

Actor Nicolas Cage attends a screening of “The Runner” at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on August 5, 2015 in Hollywood, California.

A subsequent investigation found it had been taken illegally from Mongolia. Mongolia considers all fossils present in its Gobi desert, particularly these from its Nemegt geological formation, to be authorities property & has banned their export.Tarbosaurus bataar lived throughout the Cretaceous period & disappeared some 65 million years of time of time ago.

The bataar skull was imported through an intermediary via Japan by self-described commercial paleontologist Eric Prokopi, who then put it up at auction at Chait in 2007, according to Prokopi’s attorney Georges Lederman. Its remains have only been discovered in Mongolia. In the past, it was determined the gallery sold another illegally smuggled dinosaur skeleton.