The Moroccan Ministry of Culture held a ceremony on Thursday to celebrate the recovery of a Moroccan crocodile fossil that was previously smuggled from the Kingdom to the United States.
The Rabat Zoo hosted the unveiling ceremony, which saw the presence of Minister of Culture Mehdi Bensaid, representatives of the US Embassy and the French Cultural Institute, to celebrate the 56 million-year-old fossil.
The fossil recuperation is part of a “large trilateral cooperation between Morocco, the US, and France, to counter the illicit traffic of cultural artifacts and objects,” said Bensaid in a speech to the audience.
The official said at the opening ceremony that the recovered fossil “reflects the mutual trust between Morocco and America, and their belief in the importance of heritage in preserving the collective human historic memory.”
Considering that the protection, restoration, and maintenance of heritage and Moroccan artifacts “a cultural policy priority,” the Minister states that “the security of cultural heritage is now at the center of training programs in a number of ministerial sectors.”
Kathy Eagan, Public Affairs Adviser at the US Embassy, said that “this ceremony constitutes as a practical model for the interest and joint work between the two countries to preserve and preserve cultural heritage.”
Eagen specified that “the FBI’s Minneapolis section found the skull among 7,000 artifacts on an Indiana farm following an investigation in 2014,” adding that the US “is now happy to see the Fossil return to its native land, where it belongs,” where it will stay for another hundred of thousands of years.
The US official additionally told Hespress that “the US is committed to returning all stolen artifacts and cultural goods found in the US and that belong to the government of Morocco.”
Klelia Chauvrier Kulachko, Director-General of the French Institute for Morocco, said that this ceremony is another manifestation of “an exceptional cooperation” between Morocco and France, as the latter assured the recuperation of “over 25,000 pieces” since the start of the bilateral cooperation on the matter.
Kulachko also strongly condemned the illicit and illegal trafficking of cultural, historic objects, saying that “such practices heavily penalize scientific research,” and betray humanity’s collective memory.
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