Court: Dinosaur bones going home to Mongolia
Source: Agencies |
June 22, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
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A DINOSAUR skeleton is scheduled to be taken by US authorities today from the custody of an auction house after a judge permitted its seizure for its likely return home to Mongolia.
Heritage Auctions Co-Chairman Jim Halperin said the Dallas-based company, the dinosaur's current custodian, looks forward to releasing the dinosaur after it was assured it will be properly and carefully transported and stored by the government in a secure, climate-controlled and fully insured art storage facility.
"We hope arrangements can be made for the public to view the Tyrannosaurus bataar at a museum or other convenient venue while efforts continue to reach a fair and just resolution," Halperin said Wednesday.
He said earlier this week that a consignor bought the fossils in good faith and spent a year and considerable expense restoring them.
Another buyer agreed last month to pay more than US$1 million for the reconstructed bones, with the sale contingent on the outcome of litigation. A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday ordered the transfer of the bones to US custody. The government said in court papers that the Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton was moved in March 2010 from Britain to Gainesville, Florida.
Federal authorities say five experts viewed the remains, agreeing the skeleton almost certainly originated in the Nemegt Basin in Mongolia. It was believed to have been unearthed in the last 17 years.
Heritage Auctions Co-Chairman Jim Halperin said the Dallas-based company, the dinosaur's current custodian, looks forward to releasing the dinosaur after it was assured it will be properly and carefully transported and stored by the government in a secure, climate-controlled and fully insured art storage facility.
"We hope arrangements can be made for the public to view the Tyrannosaurus bataar at a museum or other convenient venue while efforts continue to reach a fair and just resolution," Halperin said Wednesday.
He said earlier this week that a consignor bought the fossils in good faith and spent a year and considerable expense restoring them.
Another buyer agreed last month to pay more than US$1 million for the reconstructed bones, with the sale contingent on the outcome of litigation. A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday ordered the transfer of the bones to US custody. The government said in court papers that the Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton was moved in March 2010 from Britain to Gainesville, Florida.
Federal authorities say five experts viewed the remains, agreeing the skeleton almost certainly originated in the Nemegt Basin in Mongolia. It was believed to have been unearthed in the last 17 years.
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