[MSN] CHICAGO (AFP) - A US museum said Wednesday it has not received any request from Kenya to return the remains of two lions that killed at least 140 Indian workers in the 1890s before being shot by a famed British railway engineer.

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US museum unaware of Kenyan request for maneating lions 
10 hours ago 

CHICAGO (AFP) - A US museum said Wednesday it has not received any request
from Kenya to return the remains of two lions that killed at least 140
Indian workers in the 1890s before being shot by a famed British railway
engineer.

Kenyan officials said Monday that they planned to use international
protocols to repatriate the lions, which are considered part of the
country's heritage.

The killing of the railway workers by the infamous "Maneaters of Tsavo" over
a nine-month period briefly halted the construction of the Kenya-Uganda
line, a project so perilous it was dubbed the "Lunatic Express."

Railway engineer Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, whose adventures
formed the basis of the Oscar-winning 1996 movie "The Ghost and the
Darkness" starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer, shot the felines in
December 1898. 

Twenty-six years later Patterson sold their remains, consisting of the
lions' skulls and hides, to the Chicago Field Museum for 5,000 dollars.

A spokesman for the Field museum said it had "received no message or request
from the National Museum of Kenya regarding the Lions of Tsavo."

"The Field Museum cannot discuss the National Museum of Kenya's position
until we know exactly what it is," spokesman Greg Borzo said. 

Borzo noted that the two museums recently renewed a memorandum of
understanding first signed in 1998 which outlines a broad array of
collaboration between the two intuitions in research, exhibits and training.

"We are proud of our excellent relationship with the National Museum of
Kenya and look forward to continued collaboration on future projects," he
said.

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