In an event both historically and "pre-historically" significant, a cache of almost 18 smuggled dinosaur bones has been returned to Mongolia. These bones were stolen from the Gobi desert and were "enough to stock a museum," according to U.S. officials.
"A recovery of this sort is without precedent," top New York federal prosecutor Preet Bharara said at the handing-over ceremony.
The United States has been trying for about two years to return these illegally-gotten fossils to their rightful countries. The first skeleton, the remains of a 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus skeleton, was returned over a year ago to the Mongolian government. The matter of these missing bones first came to light when Mark A. Norell, Chairman and Curator-in-Charge of Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians, and Birds at the American Museum of Natural History, saw a mostly-complete Bataar skeleton listed for auction in Heritage Auctions' May 20, 2012 Natural History Auction catalog. According to the original court case, "Mr. Norell believed there was almost no chance that the 24-foot-long, 8-foot-tall fossil had been legally removed from Mongolia." (Bataar skeletons have only ever been found in Mongolia.) He wrote an open letter posted online, which was eventually shown to the President of Mongolia, who requested U.S. intervention.
The skeleton, which was nearly complete, had been sold at auction for more than $1 million. U.S. authorities recovered the skeleton after Mongolia asked it to intervene. The Mongolian minister of culture, sport and tourism said the skeleton would be the first item to go on display in a new Central Dinosaur Museum that the government planned to build.
The bones were recovered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The bones had been disassembled in Mongolia by Florida-based collector Eric Prokopi, then shipped illegally to America where he reassembled them.
Prokopi pleaded guilty in December 2012 to smuggling and has subsequently given up some of the dinosaur skeletons returned to Mongolia. The rest were voluntarily given up to U.S. authorities by a British trader, his former business partner.
James T. Hayes, special agent in charge of the New York office of Homeland Security Investigations, said at least 31 fossilized dinosaur remains will eventually be returned to Mongolian authorities. It was determined that they were illegally smuggled into the U.S. between 2005 and 2012.
Hayes said the effort to intercept illegal shipments of dinosaur bones shows the U.S. "will not allow the illicit greed of some to trump the cultural history of an entire nation."
Prokopi, who had faced up to 17 years in jail and a $US250,000 fine, was instead sentenced to three months jail on July 3 after pleading guilty and surrendering the skeletons. He cooperated extensively and volunteered information about many illegal skeletons which authorities did not already know about.
