The full story of this quarrel begins in the age of dinosaurs when a giant reptile lost its head. When the head was found in a local quarry more than two centuries ago, it caused a sensation. No one had ever seen the likes of it, a fossil with wicked rows of teeth set in jaws more than three feet long.

Scientists, who named the monster Mosasaurus after the Maas River, which runs through this southern Dutch city, said this cousin and contemporary of the dinosaurs roamed the seas some 70 million years ago. To this day, every schoolchild in Maastricht goes to the local museum to marvel at the large and enigmatic skull. Or rather, they marvel at a plaster surrogate.

The real fossil, the children are told, was seized by Napoleon's occupation army in 1794 and shipped to France. Now Maastricht wants it back. This oldest city in the Netherlands says the fossil is an intrinsic part of its patrimony, a link to the era when this region's sandstone soil was still the ocean floor.

What may have started as a slightly rambunctious local idea has gained momentum with the involvement of the Dutch Government. A few months ago, the Minister of Culture raised the issue of the "stolen" fossil with his French counterpart at a European summit meeting. So far France has responded with stony silence.