The Government of the United States officially returned a fossilized Moroccan crocodile skull stolen from Morocco in a ceremony held at the Moroccan Embassy in Washington, DC.
In an announcement yesterday by the US Embassy in Rabat, the Art Crime Team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) returned the fossilised crocodile skull to the Moroccan Embassy in Washington DC.
The embassy added that experts believe the artifact was originally appropriated from Morocco.
In a 2014 investigation, the FBI discovered the skull among 7,000 artifacts on a farm in Indiana. It 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.
Although the actual origins and age of the crocodile skull are unclear, this week’s transfer ceremony was part of a larger US commitment to preventing the smuggling of objects that are critical to Morocco’s history and cultural heritage, the US embassy said.
UNESCO considers that illicit trafficking of cultural property remains a prevalent issue that requires action to stem.