an archaeological treasure of the Cetacean returned to Brazil by the customs officers of Le Havre

An archaeological treasure was handed over by France to the Brazilian authorities on Tuesday May 24 in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime): a thousand fossils dating from the Cretaceous, seized by customs officers in 2013 during a check. After an investigation of nearly ten years which revealed a network of traffickers, these cultural goods worth several hundred thousand euros will be able to be exhibited in Brazil, where they had been taken.

It was the flair of a customs officer that made it possible to discover the fossils. In August 2013, he checked a container of quartz barrels, coming from Brazil, in the port of Le Havre. It is the value of the quartz that alerts him: the material is not worth much, so he is surprised that someone is spending so much money to import it. The customs officers therefore carry out the checks and find these treasures at the bottom of the barrels, packed in boxes.

The customs officers then ask for an expertise to determine the origin of the fossils and date them, an expertise carried out by specialists from the museums of Paris and Le Havre. They confirm the authenticity of the archaeological pieces. “There is a wide variety of animals, including very well preserved insects with their antennae and legs, crustaceans, fish, a scorpion and even dinosaur feathers”describes Professor Sylvain Charbonnier, paleontologist and scientific expert in this dossier.

These fossils are emblematic of the heritage of the Araripe basin. They were taken by traffickers in this area of ​​northeastern Brazil, while it is strictly forbidden to export them without authorization from the Brazilian state. “They come from an area which was at the time covered by a shallow sea, relatively warm waters and very rich in fish.describes Sylvain Charbonnier. “There were around land masses with probably quite lush vegetation. We even have the remains of flying reptiles, the large pterosaurs.”

It is therefore a major discovery, especially since there are new species in the lot, which Brazilian scientists will be able to study closely. Indeed, the goods will join the collections of the Museo de Paleontologia de Santana do Cariri da Universidade.

Before considering studying these specimens, however, scientists had to be patient because it took them almost ten years to recover these fossils. “We are on a real organized network of international cultural property trafficking. It requires significant funding and the defendants therefore have the means to call on lawyers who are able to challenge the elements of the procedure”, explains Pascal Filippi, deputy director of the judicial financial investigation service and who participated in the investigations. In France, the investigation is not yet completely finished. In Brazil it went faster since several of the people were judged and imprisoned.