Nicolas Cage agrees to return Tyrannosaurus skull to Mongolia

As legend has it, in 2007, the then-43-year-old actor got into a bidding war with Leonardo DiCaprio for the tune of $276,000 at an auction house for the fossil.

A United States attorney in Manhattan filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to claim back possession of the skull.

Cage, who bought the Tarbosaurus bataar fossil at a NY auction in March 2007, had “received a certificate of authenticity from the auction company”, his publicist Alex Schack said. Cage was contacted in 2014 and told the skull might be stolen, and when it was determined it was, the “National Treasure” actor agreed to give it back.

Ghost Rider and Kick-Ass actor Nicolas Cage will return a dinosaur skull he purchased, which turned out to have been stolen, The Guardian reports.

The I.M. Chait gallery also previously purchased and sold a smuggled dinosaur skeleton from Erik Prokopi, who is a convicted Paleontologist. Now, Cage will return that skull to the Mongolian government which is, apparently, where it belongs. While they have not been formally accused of wrongdoing, they haven’t been willing to speak to the press about the issue either. Prosecutors announced last week that they were taking custody of the skull so it could be returned, but they didn’t name the buyer.

Of course Nicholas Cage owns a stolen dinosaur skull.

It had been marketed as an “extremely rare” Tyrannosaurus skull from the late Cretaceous period, which ended about 65 million years ago.

Since 2012, Mr Bharara’s office has recovered more than a dozen Mongolian fossils, including three full Tyrannosaurus bataar skeletons.

Mongolia considers all fossils found in its Gobi desert, especially those from its Nemegt geological formation, to be government property and has banned their export.