A market that, even in the midst of crises, is thriving.

Dinosaurs have been a favorite motif – for young and old – for centuries: In museums, the skeletons on display awe visitors, while their cinematic representations have enchanted viewers for almost a century! Today they have also become sought-after collectibles-symbols of social status for millionaires.

Just in July, a prehistoric skeleton was sold in New York by Sotheby’s for about 45 million dollars, although the original estimate of its value ranged from six million. The November 16 auction in Paris is also expected to be noteworthy, as it is the largest lizard skeleton ever auctioned.

Tyrannosaurus, 67 million years old years old with all his teeth

‘Vulcan’, the plant-eating dinosaur’s nickname, is 20.5 meters long and about 150 million years old. It belongs to the category of Apatosaurs and preserves more than 80% of its natural bones. The more complete a skeleton is, the higher its price. “If it touches 70% of the bones, it is already considered excellent,” Eric Mikkeller explains to the German News Agency. The expert has been curating dinosaur auctions in France since the early 2000s.

The first major dinosaur auction was held in 1997 in New York by the well-known Sotheby’s house. The sale of “Sue,” a 67-million-year-old carnivorous Tyrannosaurus rex (aka T-Rex), brought in about $8.4 million. This 13 meter long giant lizard kept all its vertebrae and teeth intact.

In 2020, 70% of a T-Rex fossil known as “Stan” caused a sensation when it went under the hammer at Christie’s in New York and eventually sold for $31.8 million. Two years later, the same auction house sold “Raptor,” the skeleton of a dinosaur that inspired Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park.” Its price? Just $12.4 million!

Apex still holds the world record, however, after it was sold for around $45 million, also by Sotheby’s, which had originally estimated its value at between four and six million dollars. In Europe, the record was broken in 2021 in Paris with the Triceratops ‘Big John’, which sold for six million euros.

A piece of history as home decor

For Olivier Colin de Boucaz, head of the “Vulcan” auction, the dinosaur market is an ever-evolving trend: “These are objects of enormous cultural value,” he tells the German news agency dpa, stressing that collectors are essentially getting their hands on a piece of Earth history.

Scientists and paleontologists strongly criticize dinosaur auctions. Paleontologists, such as Jean Le Louf, even express their fears that the precious fossils will be lost: “In the past, museums bought them. Now people buy them to decorate their living room.

Edited by: Chrysa Vachtsevanu