Investigation launched into origins of disputed dinosaur skeleton

From FoxDFW: Investigation launched into origins of disputed dinosaur skeleton

NEW YORK -- The Mongolian government and a Texas-based auction house are embroiled in an ownership fight over a fearsome dinosaur fossil, but the two parties said Wednesday they are cooperating in an investigation that seeks to settle the dispute.

Heritage Auctions sold the near-complete Tyrannosaurus skeleton for $1.05 million last week in New York City.

But before the eight-foot-tall, 24-foot-long beast could get to its new owner, the Mongolian government stepped in and laid claim to the remains.

A temporary restraining order filed in the name of the Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj sought to prevent Heritage Auctions from selling the Tyrannosaurus bataar, a cousin of T. rex that roamed Asia 70 million years ago.

Elbegdorj contends that the specimen likely came from Mongolia, where fossils are considered national property and are illegal to export. His government is sending a delegation of Mongolian and international experts to New York next week to evaluate the dinosaur bones.

The goal of the inspection -- at which the skeleton's consignor and a Heritage Auctions representative will be present -- is to verify whether or not the specimen was dug up from Mongolian soil, the president's Texas-based attorney, Robert Painter, told NewsCore in an email.

"Of course, if the T. bataar is verified to be from Mongolia, our goal is to repatriate it as soon as possible," he said.

In that case, Mongolia will try to reach an "amicable settlement" with the auction house and the unidentified consignor, Painter said. But if the parties cannot hammer out an agreement, the court case will continue.

Heritage Auctions has maintained that the skeleton was legally obtained.

"At this point we don't know for certain when or from where the dinosaur was first exported, what the applicable laws were and are, or whether the court case will be settled or adjudicated," Jim Halperin, co-chairman of Heritage Auctions, told NewsCore through a spokesman.

"Fortunately the goal of Heritage Auctions, of our consignor and of the President of Mongolia would seem to be the same: a fair and just resolution based upon cooperation and shared knowledge of as many of the facts as possible," he added.

Painter said Heritage Auctions told him the specimen, which is believed to be from the Gobi desert, has no documented provenance before 2005, when it was purchased in Japan. Since then, he said, it was purchased by a collector in England and then exported to the US, where it was prepared to be sold at auction.

For now, the dinosaur bones are resting in crates at a secure facility in the New York area.