A bidder offered $1.05 million for a mounted dinosaur in Manhattan on May 20, 2012. The high bid was conditional. Mongolia had objected to the auction, and the question of who owned the bones was still open. When the government went to court over the skeleton, the dinosaur got its own place in the caption. [1] [4] [5]
Michael Johnson / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement · Image source · Public domain · The photo documents the handover, years after the fossil was unearthed.
The dinosaur in the paperwork
Two years earlier, a shipment from Great Britain had come into the United States with fossil material later linked to the skeleton. The papers put the value at $15,000 and gave Britain as the country of origin. Britain was where the crate had been shipped from. The bones had a considerably longer history. [1] [4]
Eric Prokopi, a Florida fossil dealer, worked on the bones and assembled the mounted specimen. Once it was standing in New York, experts could examine it as a whole. It was a Tarbosaurus bataar, a large carnivorous dinosaur from Asia. Paleontologists who examined it at Mongolia’s request attributed the bones to the western Gobi Desert. ICE said their coloration helped inform that assessment. [1] [2] [4]
Ksuryawanshi · Image source · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Geographic context; not authentic crime evidence. The building or landscape is public geographic context; no event is assigned to it.
A case with a skeleton in its name
Mongolia asserted ownership under laws protecting its fossils. In June 2012, U.S. authorities filed a civil forfeiture case seeking the skeleton. They could take it into custody while the question of ownership and lawful import was sorted out. The caption named the thing the government wanted to recover. The criminal case named Prokopi. [1] [4] [5]
In December, Prokopi pleaded guilty to three federal offenses involving fossil imports and transportation. He agreed to forfeit the auction specimen and other material, including another nearly complete Bataar. He received a three-month prison sentence in 2014. [2] [3] [6]
Kidfly182 · Image source · CC BY 4.0 · Geographic context; not authentic crime evidence. The building or landscape is public geographic context; no event is assigned to it.
Back to Mongolia
In May 2013, U.S. officials handed over the first skeleton at a ceremony in New York with Mongolian representatives. A photograph from the handover is in the gallery. In July the following year, federal officials announced the return of material from more than eighteen dinosaur skeletons. Some had reached investigators through other people who agreed to send their specimens back. [3] [4]
The auction gave one skeleton a price and a roomful of people who could see it. It also gave Mongolia a chance to identify what had been put up for sale. That was the first specimen officials handed back. By the next year, they were dealing with bones that had never stood in that auction room. [3] [4]
Case brief
Manhattan and Mongolia, New York · 2012
- Recorded outcome
- Eric Prokopi pleaded guilty to three federal offenses in 2012. The auction skeleton was handed over in 2013, and he was sentenced in 2014.
Key moments
Case photographs
The Tarbosaurus skull above its crate The skull from the seized skeleton is handled above a wooden crate during the May 2013 repatriation to Mongolia.
Repatriation photograph · Michael Johnson, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement · U.S. public domainThe appearance of U.S. Department of War (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.
Tarbosaurus fossil repatriation Officials handle fossil material at the 2013 handover to Mongolia.
Repatriation photograph · Michael Johnson, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement · U.S. public domain
Look closer · 9 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. Photographs, historical reproductions and original illustrations are individually labeled. Open the notes for each image’s source, credit, and limitations; setting photographs do not depict crime scenes.
Origin versus departure point
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The fossil’s origin and the shipment’s departure country are separate facts.
The sources do not locate a precise excavation site.
The mount changed the object’s form
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
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The object appeared differently in shipping and at the auction.
A mounted display does not independently prove lawful origin.
A conditional winning bid
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
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A bid over one million dollars drew attention to the specimen.
The bid does not establish a completed sale or transfer of title.
Forfeiture and the criminal case
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The property proceeding was distinct from Prokopi’s prosecution.
The seizure alone did not determine guilt.
The record behind the bones
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
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The government compared records with information about the fossil.
Species and origin are not a complete chain of ownership on their own.
Two stages of return
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
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The wider return included fossils from many skeletons.
The returned items did not all come from one shipment or auction lot.
Fossil material from the auctioned Tarbosaurus at the 2013 repatriation
Archival photograph of the actual repatriation.
Read the evidence notes
Officials handle fossil material from the auctioned Tarbosaurus at the May 6, 2013 repatriation ceremony in Manhattan. Official ICE photograph by Michael Johnson.
The photo documents the handover, years after the fossil was unearthed. The source and reuse terms are linked below.
Source 4 ↗ · Michael Johnson / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement · Image source · Public domain
A landscape in Mongolia’s South Gobi region
Context photograph — not an actual crime exhibit. The building or landscape is public geographic context; no event is assigned to it.
Read the evidence notes
A landscape in Mongolia’s South Gobi region. Geographic context photograph; not a crime-scene photograph or an original evidence exhibit. The building or landscape is public geographic context; no event is assigned to it.
Geographic context; not authentic crime evidence. The building or landscape is public geographic context; no event is assigned to it. The source and reuse terms are linked below.
Ksuryawanshi · Image source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in Manhattan
Context photograph — not an actual crime exhibit. The building or landscape is public geographic context; no event is assigned to it.
Read the evidence notes
Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in Manhattan. Geographic context photograph; not a crime-scene photograph or an original evidence exhibit. The building or landscape is public geographic context; no event is assigned to it.
Geographic context; not authentic crime evidence. The building or landscape is public geographic context; no event is assigned to it. The source and reuse terms are linked below.
Kidfly182 · Image source · CC BY 4.0
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
Follow the locations
Put the story on the map.
Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- United States v. Eric Prokopi · Federal criminal complaintCharging allegations, import history, valuation and auction.
- Justice Department · Prokopi plea and forfeiture agreementThree plea counts and the items subject to forfeiture.
- Justice Department · Return of additional fossils to MongoliaAdditional returns, three-month sentence and voluntary cooperation.
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement · 2013 handoverSpecies name, export history, seizure and formal handover.
- United States v. One Tyrannosaurus Bataar Skeleton · civil forfeiture docketSeparate property proceeding involving the auction skeleton.
- CBS New York · Sentencing reportContemporary three-month sentence report.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 404 words