Provenance of Mongolia Tarbosaurus being auctioned

[Dan Chure <danchure@easilink.com>]

Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, of Mongolia, has asked me to post the following open 
letter from Mark Norell concerning the provenance of the Tarbosaurus skeleton 
being auctioned this weekend.  Mark has approved its posting.

The Mongolian government is quite concerned about the specimen and is 
actively looking into whether or not it was illegally exported from 
Mongolia.

Dan


17 May 2012

Dear Sirs-

It is with great concern that I see Mongolian dinosaur materials listed 
in the
upcoming (May 20) Heritage Auctions Natural History catalogue. For the 
last 22 years I
have excavated specimens Mongolia in conjunction with the Mongolian 
Academy of
Sciences. I have been an author on over 75 scientific papers describing 
these important
specimens. Unfortunately, in my years in the desert I have witnessed 
ever increasing
illegal looting of dinosaur sites, including some of my own excavations. 
These extremely
important fossils are now appearing on the international market.

In the current catalogue Lot 49317 (a skull of Saichania) and Lot 49315 (a
mounted Tarbosaurus skeleton) clearly were excavated in Mongolia as this 
is the only
locality in the world where these dinosaurs are known. The copy listed 
in the catalogue,
while not mentioning Mongolia specifically (the locality is listed as 
Central Asia)
repeatedly makes reference to the Gobi Desert and to the fact that other 
specimens of
dinosaurs were collected in Mongolia. As someone who is intimately 
familiar with these
faunas, these specimens were undoubtedly looted from Mongolia. There is 
no legal
mechanism (nor has there been for over 50 years) to remove vertebrate 
fossil material
from Mongolia. These specimens are the patrimony of the Mongolian people 
and should
be in a museum in Mongolia. As a professional paleontologist, am 
appalled that these
illegally collected specimens (with no associated documents regarding 
provenance) are
being are being sold at auction.

Sincerely,

Dr. Mark A. Norell
Chairman and Curator
Division of Paleontology
norell@amnh.org