The U.S. government officially returned a fossilized Moroccan crocodile skull to Morocco this week, in a ceremony at the Moroccan Embassy in Washington, DC.
The skull was discovered in an FBI raid on a farm in Indiana in 2014, which led to the seizure of 7,000 other artifacts.
The 2014 find was the FBI’s “largest single recovery of cultural property in the bureau’s history, and experts have been working since then to identify the rightful owners of the objects,” said a statement from the US embassy in Morocco.
The exact origins and age of the crocodile skull are unclear.
“This week’s transfer ceremony was part of a larger U.S. commitment to prevent the smuggling of objects that are critical to Morocco’s history and cultural heritage,” said the statement.
In January 2021, Moroccan and U.S. governments today a memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at protecting Morocco’s cultural heritage from smuggling.
Since the 2000s, the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation has invested more than $860,000 in 11 projects to preserve Morocco’s cultural heritage.
Since the 2000s, Morocco’s rare fossils have become a business for locals who excavate fossils and sell them in auctions.
The fossils end up in museums, research centers, and private collections in Europe and North America.
An investigation from French newspaper Le Monde published in August 2018 found that exporters earn up to US$100 000 per year.
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