Nicolas Cage has been known for playing memorable characters, among which one was that of a historian who finds lost artefacts and returns them to their rightful place. Now the actor has done something similar in real life.
The New York Times reported that a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull was auctioned eight years ago in Manhattan, and was sold for $2,76,000 to an unknown buyer. Years later it was revealed that the skull was stolen from Mongolia and the buyer was Nicolas Cage.
Nicolas Cage
As a part of an initiative by US attorney Preet Bharara to return artefacts to Mongolia, Homeland Security contacted Cage and confirmed that it was stolen in 2014.
The actor, who had outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for the skull, agreed to return it, reported BBC.
The man jailed for smuggling fossils from Gobi Desert, Eric Prokopi is nothing less then a notorious villain from a Hollywood thriller, as he is described as a “one man black market in prehistoric fossils”, by prosecutors.
Representational image
All images sourced from Reuters