A Stegosaurus skeleton sold for a record $44,600,000, with buyer's premium, at Sotheby’s on Wednesday morning, the most ever paid for a dinosaur at public auction.
The sale easily surpassed its pre-sale estimate of $4 to $6 million.
The skeleton was purchased by billionaire Ken Griffin, CEO of hedge fund Citadel, according to a report Wednesday night by the Wall Street Journal. Griffin also bought a first-edition copy of the United States Constitution at Sotheby's in 2021.
The previous record for any dinosaur sold publicly came in October 2020, when Christie's sold a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton named Stan for $31.8 million.
The Stegosaurus, named Apex, measures 11 feet tall and almost 27 feet long and is considered “virtually complete,” with 254 bone elements of 319 intact. The auction house previously described Apex as "one of the most valuable dinosaurs ever offered.”
This value is largely derived from its high percentage of authentic bones, which is a significant factor in the valuation of dinosaurs. Apex has been dated to the Late Jurassic period (between 161 and 146 million years ago).
Though dinosaurs are not new to the collector world, with a watershed moment coming in 1997 when Sotheby's sold a Tyrannosaurus rex named Sue for $8.36 million — that is believed to be the first time a dinosaur had ever been sold at auction. This sale is unique as it marks the first time an auction house has worked to bring a specimen all the way from discovery to market.
First discovered in May 2022 by a paleontologist in Colorado, this specimen was followed by Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture, along its journey from excavation to the auction block.
Some activists are outspoken against the practice of selling dinosaurs to private collectors, arguing these pieces of natural history belong in museums. Additionally, past sales have been plagued by authenticity concerns as well as diplomatic disputes.
One collector who was forced to deal with the latter was actor Nicolas Cage after purchasing a skull in 2007 for $276,000. Cage later found out it had been illegally exported from Mongolia and was forced to return it.
Cage is not the only celebrity collector interested in dinosaurs. During Russell Crowe’s “The Art of Divorce" auction, held after his split from ex-wife Danielle Spencer, he sold a Mosasaur skull, obtained from Leonardo DiCaprio in December 2008.
This celebrity intrigue has drawn attention to the market but also fueled pushback, particularly from paleontologists concerned their research is being abused in the wealthy’s pursuit of rare trophies.
Sotheby’s has said it will provide the buyer with scan data of Apex, in addition to a full license to use 3D data for any purposes, in an apparent attempt to appease such concerns.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.