Nicolas Cage To Return Rare Stolen Dinosaur Skull To Mongolia (nytimes.com) 95
HughPickens.com writes: Nicolas Cage is known as an avid collector, with interests that include real estate, rare cars and comic books: In 2011, he sold a like-new copy of Action Comics No. 1, which featured the first appearance of Superman, for $2.1 million. Now Katie Rogers reports at the NY Times that Cage has agreed to turn over the skull of a Tyrannosaurus bataar. It was the star artifact in a natural history-themed luxury auction in Manhattan, and was sold for $276,000 to an anonymous buyer eight years ago. "Cultural artifacts such as this Bataar Skull represent a part of Mongolian national cultural heritage," says Glenn Sorge. "It belongs to the people of Mongolia. These priceless antiquities are not souvenirs to be sold to private collectors or hobbyists." Several skeletons of the Tyrannosaurus bataar, a large, carnivorous dinosaur that was a close relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, have been returned to Mongolia in recent years. The private sales of such artifacts have worried paleontologists because it makes it harder for the scientific community to learn more about how the dinosaurs once lived. "We're losing science, we're losing education, we're losing valuable specimens," says Kevin Padian, a paleontologist at University of California, Berkeley.
First Post (Score:1)
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I tried the lamb, it sucked.
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Chicks complain he's done in 60 seconds.
Nice, but... (Score:2)
Re: First Post (Score:1)
Cagey guy (Score:2)
That Nicholas Cage
Two point one million
For a comic book they paid
He's returning the dinosaur
skull today
'Cus the Ghost Rider one is
Way cooler, they say.
Burma Sahve
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tax write-off (Score:3)
I'm all for returning cultural artifacts. (Score:5, Insightful)
But I'm not sure a dinosaur skull counts as a cultural artifact, unless it was looted from the temple of a dinosaur worshipping cult or something.
Re:I'm all for returning cultural artifacts. (Score:5, Funny)
It's happened before. [debate.org]
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well.. yes and no.
the moon rocks only became cultural heritage of the USA after USA got them. However.. Would you count the ruins the Mongol horde created as mongolian cultural heritage?
Obviously they had no standing actual legal claim to the fossil, otherwise it would have been returned already, so I'm unsure why it was described as stolen. I just wish Cage got some assurances(however feeble they may be) that the skeleton doesn't get sold again, because that would be a nice pretty scam for the mongolians.
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cultural artifact how? (Score:3, Insightful)
I get the whole wanting it back thing.... but how is it in any way cultural? It was dead and fossilized before human culture was ever a thing. Nobody for the most part even knew the things where in the ground until what the last hundred years or so?
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"They're like Ayers Rock."
How come Ayers Rock isn't called by the Aboriginal name?
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The name "Uluru" is used as the primary name by the Australian government and in school textbooks. Though ordinary people have the right to refer to it however they like.
Aboriginal place names have always been a enthusiastically promoted part of Australia, long before Aboriginals even had the right to vote or hold public office. Why Australians never questioned calling their capital city Canberra (which may or may not mean "breasts" or "cleavage"), but a century later seem to find the name of a rock in the
Re: cultural artifact how? (Score:4, Insightful)
Same reason you don't call Germany "Deutschland"...
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And rabbits [cdc.gov]
And cane toads [theglobeandmail.com]
And pigs [cairnspost.com.au]
And cats [washingtonpost.com] (okay, to be fair, they haven't necessarily lost this one yet, but feral cats are pretty goddamn good at surviving).
Australia: The world's favorite destination for invasive species.
everything there is trying to kill you (Score:2)
except they don't do a very good job of it.
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I am a representative of the Cult of the O2, a/k/a Oxygenians and we have a good faith believe that you are in possession of some of our cultural artifacts, i.e. oxygen molecules, consisting of 2 oxygen atoms each, present in or near your lungs as well as your blood stream. We demand the immediate return of these cultural artifacts and demand you cease and desist obtaining any further specimens of O2 molecules.
Thank you for your immediate cooperation.
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free trade (Score:1, Insightful)
who gets to interfere in the sacred contract between buyer and seller.
buncha sjws, screaming about national cultural heritage
amirite?
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That must be some national treasure (Score:1)
I ruined the joke already, but it was fun.
Does Nicolas Cage collect rediculously rare videogames? Because I have tons.
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Does Nicolas Cage collect rediculously rare videogames? Because I have tons.
Only E.T. and Custer's Revenge.
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If you read the article you have seen that investigations years afterwards tied the dinosaur skull to a smuggler who knowingly broke Mongolian law by removing the fossil [and many others] from the country, and sold it to the auction house, who then sold it to Cage.
Re: why sell it in the first place? (Score:1)
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Naa, he drank a beer from it.
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http://www.justice.gov/usao-sd... [justice.gov]
Which says:
Not long after his arrest, on December 27, 2012, Prokopi pled guilty to engaging in a scheme to illegally import the fossilized remains of numerous dinosaurs that had been taken out of their native countries illegally and smuggled into the United States.
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that link doesn't mention the skull that Cage has anyways - if it did, it wouldn't really be a voluntary return anyways.
besides, I would be willing to bet money that post 1924 the government of mongolia allowed remains to leave.. the expeditions were negotiated with them, with almost certainly money changing hands as is the custom in the region.
that is, the skull would be safer in cages cage.
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Yup. If they had the force of law, they wouldn't be asking. Likewise, if a cop is asking to come in, tell him no. If he had a right to come in, he wouldn't be asking.
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Yup. If they had the force of law, they wouldn't be asking. Likewise, if a cop is asking to come in, tell him no. If he had a right to come in, he wouldn't be asking.
Yes, that's what happened when I had to report a recent burglary to the police. When a uniformed stormtrooper knocked at my door, I told him to go fuck himself and his "victim support" bullshit, and immediately posted on facebook about my heroic resistance to fascism.
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LOL Probably for the best, actually. I was tooling around on YouTube and I heard one of the funnies improv lines ever. There's a redneck with a strong rural Georgia accent and a cop who's trying to get him to let them search his house for a buddy who has a warrant out for him. He's refusing to let the cops search and the cops says something about the Georgia boy shaking and looking scared.
The Georgia Boy says, "You got a whole tool-belt designed to kill me. Of course I'm scared."
Ah well, at least you posted
Return Nicolas Cage to Mongolia (Score:5, Funny)
Babality! (Score:2)
Perfect Score!
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We don't really need to be at war with another nation, thanks :P
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In this case it's more like the guy who owned your house 3 owners ago let someone pay him to dig around and keep whatever he found.
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A fossil, that was in the ground before any human inhabited Mongolia, is not their "cultural" artefact.
That's like saying the rocks in my backyard are part of my "cultural heritage", because, well my backyard.
I'm pretty sure you'd say that the Grand Canyon was part of America's cultural heritage.
Best of 2015 (Score:2)
That is the best Slashdot headline of 2015, bar none.
Thank you and Merry Christmas/Happy New Year to everyone, even the Anonymous Cowards. Let me leave you with this traditional seasonal music:
https://youtu.be/0A8KT365wlA [youtu.be]
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There have been some epic ones, especially the ones where we found out about all the backdoors in every product, and all the ones where rooms full of people who don't understand encryption talk about it because they saw a movie or something.
But I have to concur- this one involves Nicolas Cage AND a dinosaur AND theft. Bingo!
You kjnow what also destroys science (Score:2)
When primitive screwheads destroy it during a period of civil unrest due to their religious beliefs.
We've lost a lot to isis and the taliban.
Hopefully the bhuddists of Mongolia can keep the items safe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
At the very least, we should take a casting of items before they are returned and perhaps laser surveys of things too large to protect.
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When primitive screwheads destroy it during a period of civil unrest due to their religious beliefs.
We've lost a lot to isis and the taliban.
Hopefully the bhuddists of Mongolia can keep the items safe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
At the very least, we should take a casting of items before they are returned and perhaps laser surveys of things too large to protect.
Unfortunately the facilities in Mongolia aren't that great. The main museum where dinosaur bones are kept has suffered water damage. Its likely this skull will just rot (or whatever dinosaur bones do).
Dinosaur Ghost Rider (Score:3)
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You stole some text from TFS therefore you are a pirate.
Copied, dude. He copied some text.
Plagiarism is not theft, any more than it's a bicycle.
High Praise (Score:2)
I remember a similar auction being written about in the new yorker. Was very interesting. This particular dinosaur only is found in mongolia so virtually every one has been smuggled out illegally. The article covers an american collector who swares that he didn't smuggle it out of china, but it ruined or nearly ruined him simply being in possession of it!
http://www.newyorker.com/magaz... [newyorker.com]
Worst. Movie pitch... EVER. (Score:2)
But I bet Disney already green-lighted it...
Con Air II... (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I want to be Nicholas Cage when I grow up. (Score:2)
What's interesting about this story is not that he returned it.
Sure, that was nice of him and all.
But the real story here is that Nicholas Cage stole a dinosaur skull to begin with.
That has got to be among the coolest fucking things I've ever heard about a celebrity doing.
I hope this blows up in memedom.
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(Okay, technically, it was the other guy that stole it, but being in possession of a stolen artifact is still very Indiana Jones.)
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What's interesting about this story is not that he returned it. Sure, that was nice of him and all.
But the real story here is that Nicholas Cage stole a dinosaur skull to begin with. That has got to be among the coolest fucking things I've ever heard about a celebrity doing.
I hope this blows up in memedom.
The bit where he gives it back is a bit of an anti-climactic ending though.
He had to return it (Score:1)
Yes, it's being studied by.... (Score:2)
$2.1 million for a comic book? (Score:2)