The skeleton, about three meters high and 6.7 meters long, was found in 2018 in the geological formation of the Judith River in Montana, USA, and is privately owned to date. Sotheby’s plans to offer it at an estimated price of $ 5 million to $ 8 million, according to Agence France-Presse.
In that context, the auction house’s head of science and popular culture, Cassandra Hutton, said Tuesday that “almost all of the Gorgosaurus found are in museums. And this skeleton is the only one that can be bought. ”
Gorgosaurus, similar to T-Rex, belongs to a family of tyrannosaurs (oppressive lizards) that lived in the late Cretaceous and became extinct about 77 million years ago.
The framework, which Sotheby’s says is in “excellent condition,” has been on display at its New York headquarters since July 21 this year, to be assembled a week later.
Dinosaur skeletons are regularly sold at auction, which worries palaeontologists who say their sale reduces the chance of them being displayed in museums.
Last May, the skeleton of Deinonicus, the prototype Velociraptor from Steven Spielberg’s (1993) Jurassic Park series, was sold at Christie’s in New York for $ 12.4 million, plus costs, to an Asian.
This figure is double the listed estimated price, making this sale the second most expensive dinosaur skeleton sale after the price at which the Tyrannosaurus rex sold in 2020 of $ 31.8 million.
Source: Al-Akhbar
