By Deborah Zabarenko
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 70-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton from the Gobi Desert that was smuggled to the United States in pieces and auctioned for more than $1 million was returned on Monday by the U.S. government to Mongolia.
The huge Tyrannosaurus bataar's skull was on display at a repatriation ceremony near the United Nations in New York, where officials of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan and the U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) formally turned over the nearly complete skeleton to Mongolian officials.
Mongolia demanded the return of the 8-foot-tall (2.4 meter), 24-foot-long (7.3 meter), mostly reconstructed cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex last year after commercial paleontologist Eric Prokopi sold it at a Manhattan auction last spring for $1.05 million.
Prokopi, based in Gainesville, Florida, bought and sold whole and partial fossilized dinosaur skeletons.
U.S. authorities filed charges against Prokopi in October and seized the skeleton, which is comprised of fossilized bones welded to a metal frame.
"This is one of the most important repatriations of fossils in recent years," ICE Director John Morton said in a statement. "We cannot allow the greed of a few looters and schemers to trump the cultural interests of an entire nation."
Morton said the repatriation would "undo a great wrong by returning this priceless dinosaur skeleton to the people of Mongolia."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!