998 Cretaceous fossils seized by the French customs services are handed over to the Brazilian authorities

After several years of investigation, 998 Cretaceous fossils illegally extracted from the Araripe basin and seized by the French customs services in 2013, are officially handed over by France to the Brazilian authorities. These fossils will join the collections of the Museo de Paleontologia de Santana do Cariri da Universidale.

Concealed inside a load of quartz drums, these samples composed of 348 nodules of fossilized animals taken in their clay gangue and 650 plates of the Crato Formation (crustaceans, insects, and fossilized plants), had been discovered in August 2013 by the customs officers of the office of Le Havre Port during the control of a container coming from Brazil.

The expertise carried out by specialists from the museums of Paris and Le Havre, including members of CR2P, confirmed the authenticity of the fossils, dated from the Cretaceous period (between 145 and 65 million years ago), specifying that they were emblematic pieces of the paleontological heritage of the Araripe Basin, delivering exceptionally well preserved fossils, and formally forbidden to be exported without the authorization of the Brazilian State. A judicial investigation was entrusted to the National Judicial Customs Service (now the Judicial Investigation Service of Finance) to shed light on this discovery.

By order of February 24, 2021, and after several years of investigation, having demonstrated without ambiguity the fraudulent origin of the fossils belonging to the Brazilian patrimony and concealed among legal merchandise in order to thwart the controls and then to make a commercial profit, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of Appeal of Lyon, ordered the restitution of the fossils to the Brazilian State.

• Communiqué de presse (Focus d’expert : analyse et description par Sylvain Charbonnier) : La douane remet aux autorités brésiliennes 998 fossiles du Crétacé – du bassin d’Araripe, saisis au Havre en 2013

• Album photo : Cérémonie de remise des fossiles aux autorités brésiliennes

La presse en parle

Tendance Ouest | Le Havre. Un millier de fossiles saisis sur le port restitués au Brésil [Mardi 24 mai 2022, par Célia Caradec]

Brazilian Report | French authorities return seized fossils to Bresil [Mardi 24 mai 2022, par Constance Malleret]