Malta backflips on plans to retrieve shark tooth gifted to Prince George by Sir David Attenborough
Prince George will be allowed to keep the 23 million year old shark tooth that was gifted to him by Sir David Attenborough after Malta backtracked on plans to get it back.
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Malta has backflipped on plans to retrieve a 23 million year old shark tooth that was gifted to Prince George by Sir David Attenborough.
Sir Attenborough gave the artefact — believed to be from the prehistoric animal Carcharocles megalodon up to almost three times the length of a great white shark — to the young future king during a visit to Kensington Palace last week.
He originally found during a holiday in Malta in the late 1960s.
Malta’s culture minister, Jose Herrera, yesterday promised to “get the ball rolling” to get it back.
But the government has now backtracked on the plan.
“Further to the initial remarks as reported in the Maltese media, Minister Herrera would like to reiterate that no action was initiated or will be taken on the issue,” a culture ministry spokesperson told CNN.
Under a 2002 Maltese law, fossils are regarded as objects of “cultural heritage” and automatically belong to the state. Their removal is forbidden.
Malta was a British colony until 1964, and retained Queen Elizabeth II at its head of state until 1974.
Sir Attenborough, 94, has been a long time friend of the British royal family, and Prince William shares his passion for protecting the environment.
The legendary filmmaker stopped in at Kensington Palace in central London to chat with Prince William, Kate, and their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, 5, and Prince Louis, 2.
The shark tooth stole the show in the chat, where Prince William and Sir David swapped director’s chairs.
Prince William has always been a fan of Sir David, who is the same age as the Queen and has known the Royal Family for decades.
The heir to the throne once called Sir David a “national treasure.”
“I used to love, and I still do, but when I was a young boy, used to love turning on the television and watching David’s programs and really feeling like I was back out in Africa or I was learning about something magical and almost out of this planet,” he said in 2016.
The pair shared a stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2019, where Prince William quizzed the film maker about the environment.
They are also working together on Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, which will be awarded to five people each year for the next 10 years for ideas that offer solutions to environmental problems.
The winners will share in millions of dollars in prize money, but Prince William, when announcing the prize in January, said the legacy would be 50 innovative ideas to help tackle the “biggest issues facing the planet.”
The visit was ahead of the release of Sir David’s new film A Life On Our Planet, due out in cinemas on Monday, before playing on Netflix on October 4.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk