Bataar Repatriation

ICE returned a Tyrannosaurus Bataar skeleton, looted from the Gobi Desert and illegally smuggled into the United States, to the government of Mongolia May 6, during a repatriation ceremony at a Manhattan, N.Y., hotel. The Bataar was seized in New York by HSI special agents after it sold at a Manhattan auction for $1.05 million. The return of this cultural property to Mongolia was the culmination of an investigation led by HSI New York and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.