An anonymous bidder awarded the contract for $6.1 million, auction house Sotheby’s said. Previously, Sotheby’s experts were expecting up to $20 million.
According to the auction house, it is one of the most complete sets of skull bones ever discovered. The approximately 76-million-year-old skull, nicknamed “Maximus,” was discovered on private property in the US state of South Dakota. It is about two meters tall and weighs about 90 kilograms.
A Gorgosaurus skeleton sold for about $6 million at auction in New York last summer, just before a skeleton of the dinosaur species Deinonychus antirrhopus sold for about $12 million. In 2020, a skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex was recovered for more than $30 million. However, many experts are critical of the auction of scientifically valuable skeletons.
This message was broadcast on Deutschlandfunk on December 10, 2022.
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