Morton said the repatriation would "undo a great wrong by returning this priceless dinosaur skeleton to the people of Mongolia."
Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj thanked U.S. prosecutors, judges, investigators and paleontologists in a statement: "Our two countries are separated by many miles, but share a passion for justice and a commitment to putting an end to illegal smuggling."
In addition to the skeleton, the United States is also helping to return more fossils to Mongolia, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
The Tyrannosaurus bataar lived some 70 million years ago in what is now Mongolia, and its skeleton was discovered in 1946 in a joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition to the Gobi Desert, according to court and federal documents.
It was imported to the United States in 2010 from Great Britain, with customs documents that falsely claimed it originated in Great Britain and was valued at $15,000, far below its auction price.
(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; editing by Ros Krasny and Cynthia Osterman)
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