Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / NewStats: 3,162,591 members, 7,850,986 topics. Date: Wednesday, 05 June 2024 at 11:52 AM |
Nairaland Forum / Entertainment / Celebrities / Nicolas Cage Returns Stolen Dinosaur Skull He Bought (519 Views)
Davido’s Girlfriend, Chioma And Her N45 Million Porsche Car He Bought For Her / Segun Wire: "Zlatan Ibile Collected All The Things He Bought For Me" / Actor Nicolas Cage Returns Stolen Mongolian Dinosaur Skull (2) (3) (4)
(1) (Reply)
Nicolas Cage Returns Stolen Dinosaur Skull He Bought by demarc001: 7:13am On Dec 23, 2015 |
Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage has
agreed to turn over a rare stolen
dinosaur skull he bought for $
276,000 to U.S. authorities so it can
be returned to the Mongolian
government.
The office of Preet Bharara, the U.S.
attorney in Manhattan, filed a civil
forfeiture complaint last week to
take possession of the
Tyrannosaurus bataar skull, which
will be repatriated to Mongolia.
The lawsuit did not specifically name
Cage as the owner, but Cage's
publicist confirmed that the actor
bought the skull in March 2007 from
a Beverly Hills gallery, I.M. Chait.
The "National Treasure" actor is not
accused of wrongdoing, and
authorities said he voluntarily
agreed to turn over the skull after
learning of the circumstances.
Alex Schack, a publicist for Cage, said
in an email that the actor received a
certificate of authenticity from the
gallery and was first contacted by
U.S. authorities in July 2014, when
the Department of Homeland
Security informed him that the skull
might have been stolen.
Following a determination by
investigators that the skull in fact
had been taken illegally from
Mongolia, Cage agreed to hand it
over, Schack said.
Cage outbid fellow movie star
Leonardo DiCaprio for the skull,
according to prior news reports.
The I.M. Chait gallery had previously
purchased and sold an illegally
smuggled dinosaur skeleton from
convicted paleontologist Eric
Prokopi, whom Bharara called a
"one-man black market in
prehistoric fossils."
The Chait gallery has not been
accused of wrongdoing.
It was unclear whether the Nicolas
Cage skull was specifically connected
to Prokopi, who pleaded guilty in
December 2012 to smuggling a
Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton out
of Mongolia's Gobi desert and was
later sentenced to three months in
prison.
As part of his guilty plea, Prokopi
helped prosecutors recover at least
17 other fossils.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin Bell,
who prosecuted Prokopi, was also
the lead government lawyer in the
Cage case, according to court
records.
www.lindaikejisblog.com/2015/12/nicolas-cage-returns-stolen-dinosaur.html?m=1
|
Re: Nicolas Cage Returns Stolen Dinosaur Skull He Bought by Muttybabe(f): 7:16am On Dec 23, 2015 |
o ga ooo |
Re: Nicolas Cage Returns Stolen Dinosaur Skull He Bought by eluquenson(m): 7:23am On Dec 23, 2015 |
As a nice guy abi |
(1) (Reply)
Wow… Moet Abebe Shares More Photos From Her Romantic Vacation / Photos: Nollywood Movie Stars, Patience Ozokwo, Mr Ibu, Chiwetalu Agu And Others / Davido Finally Replies Dele Momodu In A Matured Way
(Go Up)
Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 12 |