'Stolen' dinosaur skull lands Nicolas Cage in trouble
Actor paid out $276,000 for fossil that may have been illegally imported.
Cage's dino skull may have been illegally imported (Credit: Rex/Flavorwire)
Nicolas Cage has spent his money on many things.
A pyramid-shaped super tomb, a castle, several cobras, nine Rolls Royces and the most-haunted house in America are among his more flamboyant purchases.
But the dinosaur skull he scooped at a Beverly Hills auction in 2007 for $276,000 (£172,000) could have come back to bite him.
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Cage won the fossil after what has been described as an 'intense' bidding war with, of all people, Leonardo DiCaprio – adding to the bizarre nature of an already bizarre story.
But according to the Daily Telegraph, the Tyrannosaurus bataar skull was provided to the auctioneers IM Chait by one Eric Prokopi, thought to be a 'commercial palaeontologist' but who has recently pleaded guilty to illegally importing fossils from Mongolia and China.
Prokopi faces 17 years in prison for selling an illegally imported Tyrannosaurus skeleton last year for $1 million.
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The lot won by Cage is now set to be assessed by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division in case it is among items smuggled by Prokopi.
David Herskowitz, the director of IM Chait's natural history department confirmed to the Telegraph that 'Nicolas Cage’s specimen came from Prokopi'.
Cage owns a number of impressive fossils already, including a number of 570 million-year-old trilobites.
He is not alone among the ranks of Hollywood dino fans, however - director Ron Howard is also said to be something of an aficionado with his own collection of fossils, as are 'Jurassic Park' director Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford.
Check out this hilarious dinosaur prank from Japanese TV, plus more amazing viral videos, below.
