Sotheby’s teenager Ceratosaurus fossil sold $30.5 million for a fee of $30.5 million and overestimated its $6 million overestimation.
Sotheby’s highest sales in a July 16 natural history sale prompted a six-minute bidding war between six bidders in the phone, online and room, resulting in the third highest price of dinosaurs at the auction.
The July 16 auction result is after the sale of the 27-foot-long skeleton sold to “Apex” that sold at Sotheby’s in July 2024 for $44.6 million to former 200 collector Ken Griffin and is currently on lease at the U.S. Museum of Natural History; $32 million Tyrannosaurus Skeleton for sale at Christie’s in 2020.
Sotheby’s press release describes Lot 11 as “one of the best and most complete examples of the genus ever discovered”, with 139 original fossil bone elements and “a very complete and fully articulated skull.” Carnivorous dinosaurs roamed the early Earth about 154 million years ago.
Its fossil was excavated in 1996 at the Bone Cabin Quarry in Wyoming (West) and was previously exhibited in the Museum of Ancient Life in Utah’s nonprofit.
this New York Times The museum reportedly took it out of its collection and sold it to former employee Brock Sisson, now a commercial paleontologist in an undisclosed quantity. Sisson’s company carried the fossils and brought them to Sotheby’s auction.
Sotheby’s also sold the Gorgosaurus skeleton for $6.1 million in 2022, the first dinosaurs sold at auction, the T. Rex nicknamed “Sue” in 1997, and is now located in the Outdoor Museum in Chicago.
Sotheby’s press release states that unnamed buyers Ceratosaurus It is intended to lend it to the institution.
Sotheby’s natural history auction is also the largest Mars on Earth. After 15 minutes of bidding with auction experts on phone and online, Martian meteorites – NWA 16788 Sold for $5.3 million, and the cost is $4 million. The results of the 54-pound scientific specimen immediately set a new world record for the most valuable meteorites sold at auction.
The other two batches sold seven numbers and above the overestimation were dinosaur fossils: a “almost complete” Brain dragon skull (Estimated from $800,000 to $1.2 million) and Articulated Tyrannosaurus Rex’s feet (Estimated $250,000 to $350,000). Both sold for $1.758 million, including fees.
It is worth noting that all four top batches in natural history sales also accept cryptocurrency payments.
