Nicolas Cage was buyer of stolen dinosaur skull

Nicolas Cage has agreed to give back a national treasure from Mongolia.
A publicist for the star of the National Treasure adventure films confirmed Tuesday that Cage was the unwitting buyer of a dinosaur skull that federal prosecutors in New York say was stolen. Prosecutors announced last week that they were seeking court approval to take custody of the 32-inch fossil so it could be returned to the Asian nation, but they did not name the buyer.
Cage purchased the skull at auction from Los Angeles-based I.M. Chait gallery and auction house and received a certificate of authenticity, publicist Alex Schack said in an email. After being notified last year that authorities suspected the item was stolen, the actor "fully cooperated with the investigation, including arranging an inspection of the fossil by agents," and later agreed to forfeit it, Schack said.
According to court papers, investigators believe the skull was looted from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and shipped through Japan to Gainesville, Florida, in June 2006 bearing a false customs label.
The piece was auctioned in Manhattan on March 25, 2007, selling for $230,000 plus a commission that raised the total paid by the then-anonymous buyer to $276,000, the papers said.