The 'National Treasure' actor will help the rare fossil make its way back to Mongolia.
First of all, just know that Nicolas Cage did nothing wrong here.
Still, here is a sentence we didn’t expect to type today: The National Treasure actor has agreed to return a dinosaur skull he bought in 2007 after learning it had been illegally smuggled out of Mongolia.
Cage purchased the rare Tyrannosaurus bataar skull for $276,000 from I.M. Chait, a Beverly Hills gallery, his rep confirms to ET. Fun fact: The 51-year-old actor apparently out-bid Leonardo DiCaprio for it.
(Dodged a bullet there, Leo!)
WATCH: A Guy in a Dinosaur Costume Aced 'American Ninja Warrior'
Remains of the Tyrannosaurus bataar -- not to be confused with its famous cousin, the Tyrannosaurus rex -- have only been discovered in Mongolia, so the country made it illegal to remove dinosaur fossils in 1924.
Last week, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara filed a civil forfeiture complaint demanding that the skull be returned, Reuters reports, and Cage has now agreed to it.
And so ends the saga of Nicolas Cage’s stolen dinosaur skull.
Speaking of dinosaurs, watch Jurassic World's Chris Pratt get schooled on prehistoric knowledge by a little kid:
