Millionaire’s relics: Dinosaur skeleton fetches record $44.6m at auction
A 150-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton was auctioned at Sotheby's in New York. It was sold for a staggering 44.6 million dollars or approximately 36 million pounds. This is the highest amount ever paid for a dinosaur skeleton.
It stands 11 feet high and 27 feet long and has been named Apex. The Stegosaurus was auctioned by Ken Griffin, an American billionaire who owns the international hedge fund Citadel.
As it turns out, this is not the first time a dinosaur skeleton has fetched a high price. Nicolas Cage paid the equivalent of a million pounds for a Tyrannosaurus skeleton. Leonardo DiCaprio once had a Mosasaurus in his collection, and Russell Crowe bought a Mosasaurus skull from DiCaprio, which he later had to sell after a costly divorce.
The good news is that the Stegosaurus will be placed in one of the American museums, based on the new owner's decision. Griffin once again pays homage to museums in the USA. In 2018, he sponsored the replica of a Titanosaur for 16.5 million USD, the largest dinosaur discovered so far. This replica is now housed in a Chicago museum.
Collectible dinosaurs. They are millions of years old. The rich spend millions of dollars on them
Before Apex was sold, its value was estimated at 4 to 6 million USD. The billionaire exceeded this amount tenfold.
However, he was not the first to invest millions of dollars in millions of years old bones. In 2020, the new owner paid 31.8 million dollars for an 11.5-metre-long T-Rex at Christie's English auction house.
Apex was discovered in a town aptly named Dinosaur in Colorado. Its skeleton is mostly intact. It is believed to have lived to a ripe old age, and the only affliction it suffered was arthritis.
