Nicolas Cage to return dinosaur skull to Mongolia

While this might sound like the plot to his next direct-to-video movie or the third National Treasure movie, Nicolas Cage really is returning a dinosaur skull to its rightful place in Mongolia.

Back in 2007, Cage won an auction at the Beverly Hills gallery I.M. Chait for a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull for $276,000. According to Reuters, Cage voluntarily agreed to return the skull to Mongolia, after Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, filed a civil forfeiture complaint.

The Department of Homeland Security told Cage last year that it might have been stolen, publicist Alex Schack said. The actor will hand the skull over to U.S. authorities, then it will be taken to Mongolia.

Bharara’s office has helped bring over a dozen fossils back to Mongolia. It’s not clear how Cage’s skull landed at the Beverly Hills gallery, but the gallery had bought fossils from convicted paleontologist Eric Prokopi in the past.

Cage reportedly beat out Leonardo DiCaprio at the auction for the skull.