A skeleton of a 22-meter-long dinosaur (70 feet) was sold for six million euros ($6.4 million) on Saturday, as reported by auction houses Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa.
An anonymous collector purchased the vegetarian apatosaurus, which was excavated in the United States, for 4.7 million euros, bringing the total to six million euros after fees. This sale marks the largest dinosaur ever auctioned in France.
The buyer has pledged to lend the skeleton to a museum for display. “We are pleased that the buyer intends to loan it to an institution,” said Olivier Collin du Bocage. The skeleton is composed of 75 to 80 percent of the original bones and is approximately 150 million years old.
The remains of the giant herbivore, which would have weighed around twenty tonnes during its lifetime, spent the summer in the Orangerie of Dampierre-en-Yvelines, a château located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Paris, where the auction took place.
The apatosaurus, nicknamed Vulcan, was discovered in Wyoming in 2018, a location where the law permits individuals to obtain permits for excavating prehistoric bones. Excavations occurred from 2019 to 2021, funded by a French investor.
The fossil, consisting of 300 bones, was then shipped to France for restoration. Its pre-sale value at auction was estimated to be between three and five million euros.
As part of the sale agreement, the future owner is required to grant paleontologists access to the dinosaur for study.
(with AFP)
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