World famous actor Nicholas Cage has made headlines outside of the box office by returning a stolen dinosaur skull to the nation of Mongolia.
Sources tell Celebrity Gossiper that the Oscar-winning thespian had acquired the skull of a Tyrannosaurus bataar at a Beverly Hills gallery auction…fully intending on decorating his house with the prehistoric relic. But it soon was revealed that the prized specimen had found its way on to the black market and then to the auction block by less than legal means. So the leading man did the right thing and contacted authorities about his fossilized purchase, and soon after, the the National Treasure star returned the priceless reptile’s noggin to the rightful Mongol owners.
Cage had reportedly outbid fellow Hollywood icon Leonardo DiCaprio for the right to take the skull home back in 2007. Undoubtedly DiCaprio now feels he dodged a $276,000 dollar bullet, which is the price that Nicholas Cage reportedly paid for the rare dinosaur skull, only to have to eat the money and re-gift it to the Mongolians.
So Merry Christmas, Mongolia. Don’t ever say Nicholas Cage never got you anything.
A publicist for Cage, told the press 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.
Tyrannosaurus bataar, was a carnivorous dinosaur that lived approximately 70 million years ago. Its remains have been discovered almost exclusively in Mongolia, which criminalized the export of dinosaur fossils in 1924.
Since 2012, authorities have recovered more than a dozen Mongolian fossils, including three full Tyrannosaurus bataar skeletons. But until now, no debonair adventure movie star had given them such a headline grabbing assist.
