#REAL T REX SKULL FOR SALE FULL#

'I do not necessarily blame Christie's for this,' Larson said. A later version of Christie's press release acknowledges that Shen includes 'Stan elements' purchased from the Black Hills Institute.īoth Santangelo and Larson told CNN the changes didn't go far enough toward addressing their concerns but added that Christie's had done the right thing by withdrawing the skeleton from auction. He added that Christie's later responded with proposed revisions to its condition report. Luke Santangelo, a lawyer representing the Black Hills Institute, told CNN he contacted Christie's in late September and that the auction house was receptive to his concerns. Larson said that buyers who were unaware that Shen contained casts based on Stan would thus be 'at risk' of intellectual property conflicts with the organization.

#REAL T REX SKULL FOR SALE FULL#

The Black Hills Institute, which sells full polyurethane casts of Stan for US$120,000, was concerned that the auction house's catalog listing may be misleading potential bidders. The spokesperson added that Christie's 'conducts research at the highest standard in the auction business on all objects we offer for sale,' and that it 'remains committed to the fossil category and to our standards of research and presentation for sale.' We believe the original elements of Shen are authentic.' rex skeleton extant that is entirely made up of original bones. While Christie's declined to address the specifics of Larson's claims or its reasons for canceling the sale, a spokesperson told CNN via email: 'There is no T. don't have whole bones, so it's Stan with some little fragments of bone in there.'Īccording to a Christie's press release issued in September, Shen's skeleton is 'museum standard.' In a since removed page on its website, the auction house stated that the specimen, which measures 43 feet long and 16 feet tall, is 54% complete 'based on bone density.' 'I'd say probably 95% or more is actually Stan,' said Larson, who has studied photographs and scans of the skeleton, in a phone interview. rex known as Stan - a skeleton his organization holds intellectual property rights to after selling it via Christie's for a record US$31.8 million in 2020.

But paleontologist Peter Larson, president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in South Dakota, believes Shen was predominantly built with replica parts from a T. It is common practice for dinosaur skeletons to be partially reconstructed using casts of other specimens, in addition to original bone, to make them appear whole. It was poised to fetch between US$15 million and $25 million, according to auction house estimates. Touted as the highlight of Christie's upcoming Hong Kong sales, Shen was set to become the first T. In a statement provided to CNN on Monday, the British auction house said the unidentified seller will instead loan the skeleton, which is nicknamed Shen, to a museum. With many large fairs around the world, the trade must amount to “hundreds of millions of dollars every year but potentially a lot more than that,” he said.Christie's has withdrawn a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton from sale, with just days to go until the historic auction, after a paleontologist said the fossil largely comprises copyrighted replica bones from another specimen. The size of the private market for fossils is unclear, but Barrett estimates it to be a fairly big trade, although most of the sales take place through private deals, not at auction.

“There are a few very nice T-rex skulls in both museum collections and private collections and this one sounds like a particularly nice one,” he told CNN. Professor Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London, who has published research on the private trade of fossils, has not seen the specimen but said judging from its listing, it is “not a unique object but it is a rare one.” Most of the museum skulls you see are not actually real fossils.” There are not many pieces available to the public. “It could also be a corporation – oil and gas companies would be interested in having such items in their headquarters. “It would probably be a passionate collector,” Martigny said.

While you might think that the market for dinosaur fossils is rather niche, Florian Martigny, co-founder of the site Luxify, said the lot could appeal to many buyers. LuxifyĮlite world of dinosaur fossil collecting

Real t rex skull for sale