Apatosaur "Vulcain" Dinosaur skeleton sold for 4.7 million euros at auction in Paris
It was the largest prehistoric skeleton ever offered at auction. The buyer is a private collector.
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- The skeleton of a dinosaur belonging to the genus of herbivorous apatosaurs has been auctioned off in Paris.
- The sale price was 4.7 million euros.
- It is the largest skeleton that has ever been offered at auction worldwide.
It is 20.5 meters long and was the largest dinosaur offered at auction worldwide. In Paris, the skeleton of "Vulcain", as it was nicknamed, has now gone under the hammer for 4.7 million euros (4.4 million Swiss francs). This makes the auction one of the highest ever achieved for a dinosaur skeleton in France, according to the auction houses Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa. The record is held by "Big John", which fetched 6 million euros (5.6 million Swiss francs) in Paris in 2021.
The 4.7 million euros is the pure sales price excluding VAT and the auctioneer's fee. The estimated value of the prehistoric lizard, which belongs to the genus of herbivorous apatosaurs, was between 3 and 5 million euros.
As the two auction houses announced on Saturday, "Vulcain" went to a French collector who wants to give the skeleton with over 80 percent original bones on loan to a museum or scientific institution.
The fossil market is booming. As recently as July 2024, a 150-million-year-old skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex went under the hammer at Sotheby's in New York for around 45 million dollars (around 40 million Swiss francs).
dpa