Mongolia retrieves smuggled dinosaur fossils from Korea

Last Sunday, the Mongolian government reclaimed 11 Mongolian dinosaur fossils smuggled to South Korea reported the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office of South Korea.

The Mongolian government shared plans to temporarily transfer the fossils to the possession of cultural property authorities of the two governments for research and an initiative to exhibit the fossils in South Korea.

The collection of fossils includes a skull and rib bones of the carnivore Tarbosaurus, which inhabited Asia 70 million years ago. According to paleontologists, Tarbosaurus fossils have been discovered in only the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

The research value of the pieces is highly notable, a researcher at the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage said.

Korean police found that the fossils were originally excavated from the Gobi Desert by Mongolians and smuggled to China. Reportedly, the fossils were put inside multiple boxes to make them look like parts of a disassembled ger, the Mongolian traditional dwelling.

The fossils were brought to South Korea in May 2014, after a Korean smuggler purchased them for 467 million KRW (approximately 411,000 USD at the time). The Korean smugglers reportedly had a disagreement over the rights to the fossils in February 2015, which ended in a lawsuit, according to the South Korean side.

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office of South Korea confiscated the fossils and inspected them with Mongolian cultural heritage experts. The results of soil testing proved that the fossils were indeed from the Gobi Desert and Korean authorities decided to return the fossils to Mongolia.

This is the first time the South Korean government discovered and repatriated illegally acquired cultural property to the government of another nation. The Mongolian law states that all paleontological finding discovered within the country belong to the state and cannot be privatized as they are considered national heritage.