In a story that's more interesting than nearly every movie he's ever done, Nicolas Cage has returned a stolen dinosaur skull worth a quarter-million dollars to its rightful owner.
As Reuters explains, the prolifically terrible actor purchased a rare Tyrannosaurus bataar skull for $276,000 USD, but has agreed to return it to the Mongolian government.
Cage purchased the skull in 2007 from the gallery I.M. Chait, but it has since been determined to be stolen property. Cage's publicist said the actor received a certificate of authenticity when he purchased the dino head, but was later informed that it may have been stolen in 2014.
Neither Cage nor the I.M. Chait gallery were named in the trial, though Cage's publicist confirmed it was the same skull. Cage beat out Leonardo DiCaprio in an auction for the item.
Preet Bharara instead filed suit against paleontologist Eric Prokopi, who Bharara described as a "one-man black market in prehistoric fossils."
As Reuters explains, the prolifically terrible actor purchased a rare Tyrannosaurus bataar skull for $276,000 USD, but has agreed to return it to the Mongolian government.
Cage purchased the skull in 2007 from the gallery I.M. Chait, but it has since been determined to be stolen property. Cage's publicist said the actor received a certificate of authenticity when he purchased the dino head, but was later informed that it may have been stolen in 2014.
Neither Cage nor the I.M. Chait gallery were named in the trial, though Cage's publicist confirmed it was the same skull. Cage beat out Leonardo DiCaprio in an auction for the item.
Preet Bharara instead filed suit against paleontologist Eric Prokopi, who Bharara described as a "one-man black market in prehistoric fossils."
