What the New York auction house Sotheby’s has just experienced is historic. After less than two minutes of bidding, the expected sales value of six million dollars was reached. Millions upon millions every minute, a video from Sotheby’s shows the tense scenes. At 25 million dollars, a woman from the back row suddenly speaks up. She is now bidding on behalf of her client. In the end, she will be the one who bids the 40 million dollars – and buys the Stegosaurus.
No one has ever paid that much for dinosaur bones before. The new owner, on whose behalf the lady bid at Sotheby’s, is called Ken Griffin. He is the founder and manager of the hedge fund Citadel and number 42 on the US magazine Forbes’ list of the richest people in the world. The 55-year-old’s estimated fortune: 37.6 billion dollars. The passionate art collector could easily afford the Stegosaurus. Including fees, he paid a whopping $44.6 million for the fossil. The last T-Rex to be sold was Stan in 2020 for $31.8 million.
Apex, the name given to Griffin’s fossil, is very well preserved. Paleontologists were able to excavate between 75 and 85 percent of the skeleton. “We even found skin impressions, which is super, super rare,” says Cassandra Hatton, who heads the science department at Sotheby’s. Apex was discovered near the small town of Dinosaur in the US state of Colorado.
Experts are critical of the auctioning of scientifically valuable fossils. Prices have recently risen immensely, driven by super-rich private bidders. Research institutions often cannot keep up, so some specimens are simply no longer accessible to science and society. “These auctions are widening the gap between academic and commercial paleontology,” says paleontologist Cary Woodruff from the Frost Science Museum in Florida on local radio. He sees replicas as a solution: real pieces in the museum, confusingly similar works in the living room.
In the case of super-rich dinosaur fan Griffin, the unique skeleton will probably remain for science and society. After being excavated, restored and supplemented with 3D prints for almost two years, it is to find its place in an American museum. “Apex was born in America and will stay in America,” says Griffin. He also followed this course when he auctioned off a US Constitution in 2021. He spent $43.2 million at Sotheby’s on one of the first copies of the document – and then didn’t hang it over his sofa, but has since loaned it to various museums. He sees himself as a kind of protector of the old paper, he told the Wall Street Journal. The new object under his protection, however, is not quite as handy; it is almost 3.5 meters high and more than eight meters long from head to tail tip. It is also significantly older: around 150 million years old.